AFER, along with Broadway Impact, an organization of theater artists and fans, sponsors "8", a play reenacting the trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. The two organizations are licensing "8" for free to college and community theatres worldwide. All-star readings of "8" have been produced on Broadway and in Los Angeles.

Contents

AFER was launched in Spring 2009 as the sole sponsor of Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the federal constitutional challenge to California's Proposition 8. The Foundation was co-founded by political consultants Chad Griffin and Kristina Schake.[3]

In January 2010, Theodore B. Olson published a cover essay in Newsweek magazine entitled “The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage,” in which Olson argued:

“Legalizing same-sex marriage would also be a recognition of basic American principles, and would represent the culmination of our nation's commitment to equal rights. It is, some have said, the last major civil-rights milestone yet to be surpassed in our two-century struggle to attain the goals we set for this nation at its formation.

“This bedrock American principle of equality is central to the political and legal convictions of Republicans, Democrats, liberals, and conservatives alike.”[6]

Activities

AFER’s fundraising activities illustrate its nonpartisan approach to winning marriage equality. Adam Nagourney and Brooks Barnes of The New York Times have described approaches like AFER’s as a

“dramatic evolution of a behind-the-scenes fund-raising network whose goal is to legalize same-sex marriage from coast to coast. This emerging group of donors is not quite like any other fund-raising network that has supported gay-related issues over the past 40 years, they come from Hollywood, yes, but also from Wall Street and Washington and the corporate world; there are Republicans as well as Democrats; and perhaps most strikingly, longtime gay organizers said, there has been an influx of contributions from straight donors unlike anything they have seen before.”[7]

And Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson “credits conservatives like Ted Olson and former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman with accelerating th[e] trend” of increasing Republican support for marriage equality.[8]

AFER’s fundraising activities include:

A September 2010 event at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in New York City co-hosted by prominent Republicans Ken Mehlman, Paul Singer, and Peter Thiel.[9][10]

In January 2010, a 12-day trial was held before Chief Judge Walker, the trial proceedings were recorded on video. That video recording remains under seal as part of the case record, at trial, Plaintiffs presented 17 witnessed: 8 lay witnesses, including the four plaintiffs, and nine expert witnesses. Proponents presented only two witnesses. Closing arguments were heard on June 16, 2010.

On August 4, 2010, the District Court found in favor of plaintiffs and declared Proposition 8 unconstitutional, the District Court concluded that Proposition 8 violated the Due Process Clause because it “unconstitutionally burdens the exercise of the fundamental right to marry”[15] and “cannot withstand rational basis review”[16] or the strict scrutiny required for a law that infringes on a fundamental rights. The District Court also concluded that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause because it “creates an irrational classification on the basis of sexual orientation.”[15] The court supported its conclusions of law with 80 detailed factual findings, the District Court concluded:

"Because California has no interest in discriminating against gay men and lesbians, and because Proposition 8 prevents California from fulfilling its constitutional obligation to provide marriages on an equal basis, the court concludes that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional."[17]

On August 12, 2010, Chief Judge Walker denied Proponents’ motion for a stay and entered a permanent injunction against the enforcement of Proposition 8.[18][19]

The appeal was heard before a three-judge panel: Circuit Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Michael Daly Hawkins, and N. Randy Smith. The panel heard oral argument on December 6, 2010, and was broadcast on television and the Internet, becoming the most watched appellate court proceeding in American history.

"Whether under Article II, Section 8 of the California Constitution, or otherwise under California law, the official proponents of an initiative measure possess either a particularized interest in the initiative’s validity or the authority to assert the State’s interest in the initiative’s validity, which would enable them to defend the constitutionality of the initiative upon its adoption or appeal a judgment invalidating the initiative, when the public officials charged with that duty refuse to do so."[21]

The Ninth Circuit certified the question because it "require[d] such an authoritative determination" of California law to "determine whether Proponents have standing to maintain this appeal."[22]

The California Supreme Court agreed to decide the Ninth Circuit's certified question in February 2011, heard oral argument in September 2011, and issued its decision in November 2011, the California Supreme Court's unanimous decision was authored by Chief JusticeTani Cantil-Sakauye. In answering the Ninth Circuit’s certified question, the California Supreme Court held:

"that when the public officials who ordinarily defend a challenged state law or appeal a judgment invalidating the law decline to do so, under article II, section 8 of the California Constitution and the relevant provisions of the Elections Code, the official proponents of a voter-approved initiative measure are authorized to assert the state‘s interest in the initiative‘s validity, enabling the proponents to defend the constitutionality of the initiative and to appeal a judgment invalidating the initiative."[23]

In April 2011, while the California Supreme Court was considering the Ninth Circuit’s certified question, the proponents of Proposition 8 filed motions to return the video recordings of the trial and to vacate the District Court’s judgment invalidating Proposition 8. Plaintiffs opposed both motions and cross-moved to unseal the video recordings, on June 14, 2011, Chief Judge James Ware of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California denied both of Proponents’ motions.[24][25] On September 19, 2011, Chief Judge Ware granted Plaintiffs' cross-motion and ordered the digital video recording of the trial unsealed.[26] Proponents’ appealed both decisions, on December 8, 2011, the Ninth Circuit heard another round of oral argument to consider Proponents’ appeals regarding the trial recordings and motion to vacate judgment.

On February 2, 2012, the three-judge panel unanimously reversed the District Court’s decision to unseal the trial tapes.[27]

On February 7, 2012, the panel affirmed the District Court’s judgment that found Proposition 8 unconstitutional, the panel’s majority opinion was authored by Judge Stephen Reinhardt, and unanimously concluded that Proponents possess standing to maintain their appeal and that the District Court properly rejected Proponents’ motion to vacate the judgment entered by former Chief Judge Walker. Judge Reinhardt, joined by Judge Hawkins, concluded that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause. Judge Reinhardt wrote:

"Proposition 8 serves no purpose, and has no effect, other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California. The Constitution simply does not allow for 'laws of this sort.'"[28]

Judge N. Randy Smith filed a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part. While Judge Smith agreed with the majority that Proponents have standing and that their motion to vacate judgment should be denied, he dissented from the majority's conclusion that Proposition 8 violates the Equal Protection Clause.[29]

On February 21, 2012, Proponents petitioned the Ninth Circuit for rehearing en banc, which Plaintiffs opposed, the Ninth Circuit denied Proponents’ petition on June 5, 2012. Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain filed a short opinion dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc, which was joined by Judges Jay Bybee and Carlos Bea. Judges Reinhardt and Hawkins filed a joint statement concurring in the denial of rehearing en banc.[30]

United States Supreme Court

On July 30, 2012, Proponents filed a petition for a writ of certiorari in the United States Supreme Court,[31] on December 7, 2012, the Court granted Proponents' petition in the case, now named Hollingsworth v. Perry.[32] The Court heard oral argument in Perry on Tuesday, March 26, 2013.[33]

"For there to be ... a case or controversy [under Article III of the Constitution], it is not enough that the party invoking the power of the court have a keen interest in the issue. That party must also have 'standing,' which requires, among other things, that it have suffered a concrete and particularized injury, because we find that petitioners do not have standing, we have no authority to decide this case on the merits, and neither did the Ninth Circuit."[34]

Robert F. McDonnell, in his official capacity as Governor of Virginia, and Ken Cuccinelli, in his official capacity as Attorney General, were listed as defendants along with George E. Schaefer, III, in his official capacity as Clerk of Court for Norfolk Circuit Court. Tim Bostic and Tony London of Norfolk, Virginia, an unmarried couple, filed the initial complaint.[37]

The court dismissed Governor McDonnell and Attorney General Cuccinelli and an amended complaint was filed on September 3, 2013 that added Janet M. Rainey, in her official capacity as State Registrar of Vital Records, as a defendant,[38] the suit proceeded as Bostic v. Rainey.

The American Foundation for Equal Rights joined the lawsuit in September 2013[39] along with two additional plaintiffs, Carol Schall and Mary Townley of Richmond, who were married in California in 2008, were raising a teenage daughter in Virginia,[40] and sought to have their marriage officially recognized by law.[41]

In January 2014, Michele McQuigg, in her official capacity as Prince William County Clerk of Court, successfully intervened in the case as a defendant.

A hearing was held at the district court on February 4, 2014.[42] Ted Olson as well as Solicitor General Stuart Raphael, on behalf of the state, made arguments in favor of the plaintiffs. New-elected Attorney General Mark Herring announced his support for marriage equality ahead of oral arguments.[43] Newly elected Governor Terry McAuliffe announced his support soon after the district court decision.[44]

On February 13, 2014, Judge Wright Allen ruled that Virginia’s statutory ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional,[45] the court held that the right to marry is a fundamental right, and therefore the limitation to such right is subject to strict scrutiny. Judge Wright Allen found the state’s laws did not even pass rational basis review, the least demanding standard of review, the decision was stayed pending appeal by the state.

Circuit Court

Clerk of Court for Norfolk Circuit Court George E. Schaefer, III, appealed the district court decision on February 24, 2014 to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.[46] Defendant McQuigg filed a separate appeal.[47] Seeking a swift conclusion to the case in favor of the plaintiffs, defendant Janet M. Rainey also appealed the decision on behalf of the state of Virginia.[48]

On March 10, 2014, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed a class of individuals in another case, Harris v. McDonnell, to intervene in Bostic.[49]

On July 28, 2014, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision in a 2-1 ruling.[52] Judge Henry Floyd wrote the majority opinion in which Judge Gregory joined.[53] Judge Niemeyer wrote a separate dissenting opinion, the mandate of the court’s judgment was scheduled to issue on August 21, 2014.[54]

Michele McQuigg asked the Fourth Circuit to stay its mandate in the case, on August 13, 2014, Judge Floyd, with the concurrence of Judge Gregory, denied the intervening defendant’s motion. Judge Niemeyer voted to grant the motion. Judge Henry Floyd wrote the majority opinion in which Judge Gregory joined.[55] McQuigg petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the Fourth Circuit’s order pending the outcome of petitions to the high court for writ of certiorari.[56]

U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, circuit justice for the Fourth Circuit, referred the matter to the full court, which stayed enforcement of the ruling on August 20, 2014.[57]

United States Supreme Court

Seeking swift guidance on the constitutional question of marriage equality, Janet M. Rainey petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court for writ of certiorari, or petition for review, on behalf of the state of Virginia on August 8, 2014.[58] Defendants Schaefer and McQuigg filed their own separate petitions with the high court.

Amicus briefs, of friends of the court briefs, were filed in favor of the plaintiffs by companies such as Nike, Inc., Amazon.com, and Oracle Corporation.[59] Attorneys General of fifteen states where marriage equality was legal also urged the court via an amicus brief to review the important constitutional question of marriage equality and rule in favor of the "Bostic" plaintiffs.[60]

All three petitions in the "Bostic" case were reviewed by the Supreme Court at the court’s Long Conference on September 29, 2014.[61][62]

On October 6, 2014, the court denied all three petitions for writ of certiorari officially and immediately making marriage equality law of the land in Virginia.[63]

Petitions for writ of certiorari in marriage equality cases from Oklahoma, Utah, Wisconsin, and Indiana were also denied on October 6.[64]

AFER, along with Broadway Impact, an organization of theater artists and fans, sponsors “8,” a play reenacting the trial of Perry v. Schwarzenegger. “8” was written by Dustin Lance Black in light of efforts by the proponents of Proposition 8 to prevent public broadcast of the trial and the release of video recordings from the trial.[65]

“8” had its world premiere reading on September 19, 2011 at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre in New York City, starring Morgan Freeman and John Lithgow.[66][67] "8" had its West Coast premiere reading on March 3, 2012 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre starring Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Martin Sheen, and Kevin Bacon. The Los Angeles performance was broadcast live on YouTube, a first for a non-profit.[68]

AFER and Broadway Impact also license “8” for free to college and community theaters worldwide.

Hollingsworth v. Perry
–
Hollingsworth v. Perry refers to a series of United States federal court cases that legalized same-sex marriage in the State of California. The case began in 2009 in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California and this decision overturned ballot initiative Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage. After the State of Ca

1.
A demonstration in front of the Supreme Court on the day of oral arguments

Proposition 8
–
Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 California state elections. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26,2013. The official proponents justificati

1.
As California State Attorney General, Jerry Brown (shown here campaigning for Governor in 2010) had the ballot's description and title changed from "Limit on Marriage" to "Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry"

Los Angeles
–
Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county

United States
–
Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean,

Bruce Cohen
–
Bruce L. Cohen is a film, television, and theater producer. Cohen was born to a Jewish family and raised in Falls Church, in 1983, he graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. Cohen won the Best Picture Oscar for producing American Beauty and he earned additional Best Picture nominations for Milk and Silver Linings Pla

1.
Cohen at the mental health initiative Campaign to Change Direction at the Newseum in Washington, March 4, 2015

Dustin Lance Black
–
Dustin Lance Black is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer and LGBT rights activist. He has won a Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk and he was born in Sacramento, California as Dustin Lance Garrison. His father walked out on his mother, Roseanna. Following his mothers marriage to

Chad Griffin
–
Chad Hunter Griffin is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States. Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, AFERs challenge, Perry v. Brown was ultimately successful following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2013. In

Ken Mehlman
–
Kenneth Brian Ken Mehlman is an American businessman, attorney, and political figure. Prior to joining KKR, Mehlman spent a year as an attorney, Mehlman held several national posts in the Republican Party and the George W. Bush Administration. In 2000 he was appointed Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, Mehlman managed Bushs 20

1.
Mehlman in greyscale sitting in a chair

Rob Reiner
–
Robert Rob Reiner is an American actor, writer, director, producer, and activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to prominence with the role of Michael Stivic on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s and he also directed the psychological horror-thriller Misery, the romantic comedy fantasy adventure The Princess B

California Proposition 8 (2008)
–
Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 California state elections. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26,2013. The official proponents justificati

1.
As California State Attorney General, Jerry Brown (shown here campaigning for Governor in 2010) had the ballot's description and title changed from "Limit on Marriage" to "Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry"

Equal Protection Clause
–
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject of much debate and this clause was the bas

1.
Congressman John Bingham of Ohio was the principal framer of the Equal Protection Clause.

United States Solicitor General
–
The United States Solicitor General is the third-highest-ranking official in the U. S. Department of Justice. The United States Solicitor General is the appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Acting Solicitor General, Jeffrey Wall, took office on March 10,2017, t

Theodore B. Olson
–
Theodore Bevry Ted Olson is an American lawyer, practicing at the Washington, D. C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson served as United States Solicitor General from June 2001 to July 2004 under President George W. Bush, Theodore Olson was born in Chicago and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in Mountain View, California. He graduated fro

1.
Theodore Olson

2.
Department of Justice portrait of Theodore Olson

David Boies
–
David Boies is an American lawyer and chairman of the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner. He has been involved in various cases in the United States. Boies was born in Sycamore, Illinois, to two teachers, and raised in a farming community and his first job was when he was 10 years old—a paper route with 120 customers. Boies has dyslexia and he did

Bush v. Gore
–
Bush v. Gore,531 U. S.98, is the United States Supreme Court decision that resolved the dispute surrounding the 2000 presidential election. The ruling was issued on December 12,2000, on December 9, the Court had preliminarily halted the Florida recount that was occurring. Eight days earlier, the Court unanimously decided the closely related case of

8 (play)
–
It was created by Dustin Lance Black in light of the courts denial of a motion to release a video recording of the trial and to give the public a true account of what transpired in the courtroom. The play is written in the style of verbatim theatre reenactment, using transcripts from the trial, journalist records, and media interviews from the plai

1.
Official Poster

Human Rights Campaign
–
The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBT civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the United States. The organization has a number of legislative initiatives as well as supporting resources for LGBT individuals, the Human Rights Campaigns leadership includes President Chad Griffin. Steve Endean, who had worked with a

Republican National Committee
–
The Republican National Committee is a U. S. political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and it is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Conventi

1.
Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus at the Western Republican Leadership Conference in October 2011 in Las Vegas

2.
Republican National Committee

White House
–
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. It has been the residence of every U. S. president since John Adams in 1800, the term White House is often used to refer to actions of the president and his advisers, as in The White Ho

First Lady
–
First Lady is an unofficial title used for the wife or hostess of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is used to describe a woman seen to be at the top of her profession or art. Collectively, the President of the United States and his spouse are known as the First Couple and, if they have children, they are usually referred

Michelle Obama
–
Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American lawyer and writer who was First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama and she subsequently worked as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and the Vice President for Community and External Affa

Robert A. Levy
–
He is a Cato senior fellow and an author and pundit. Before becoming a lawyer, he was the founder and CEO of CDA Investment Technologies, Levy was born and grew up working class in the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, DC. His parents ran a hardware store. He attended college at American University, where he earned a Ph. D. in business in 1966.

1.
Robert A. Levy in 2007

Cato Institute
–
The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D. C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, in July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute. Cato was established to have a focus on advocacy, media exposure. According to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Inde

1.
Cato Institute building in Washington, D.C.

2.
Cato Institute

3.
John A. Allison IV speaking at the 2014 International Students for Liberty Conference (ISFLC)

John Podesta
–
John David Podesta is a columnist and former chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. He previously served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, additionally, he was a co-chairman of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Podesta spent most of his years in Chicago, where he was born. His mother, Mary, was Greek-American, and

Center for American Progress
–
The Center for American Progress is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. According to CAP, the center is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership, the Center presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washin

Julian Bond
–
Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement, politician, professor and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, Bond was elected to four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and later to six terms in the Georgia State Senate, serving a combined

Dan Choi
–
Daniel Choi is an American former infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq war during 2006-2007. On October 19,2010, Choi applied to rejoin the US Army, Choi is a native of Tustin in Orange County, California, the son of a Korean-American Baptist minister. He graduated from Tustin High School then attended the Uni

Dolores Huerta
–
Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Huerta has received awards for her community service and advocacy for workers, immigrants. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, the United States Pres

Cleve Jones
–
Cleve Jones is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt which has become, at 54 tons, Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. His mother was a Quaker, a faith she held at least in part to benefit her son in the era of the draft for the Vietnam war and he did

Stuart Milk
–
Stuart Milk is a global LGBT human rights activist and political speaker. The nephew of civil rights leader Harvey Milk, he is the co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and he has engaged in domestic and international activism, including work with LGBT movements in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Milk is frequently quoted in new

Hilary Rosen
–
Hilary Rosen is an American communications and political consultant and pundit, and former head of the Recording Industry Association of America. She was a columnist for The Washington Post, became the first Washington editor-at-large and political director of The Huffington Post, and has provided commentary for CNN, CNBC. She worked for the RIAA f

1.
Rosen testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2000 on the future of digital music

2.
Fire on Deep Water Horizon

Judy Shepard
–
She and her husband, Dennis, are co-founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and advocates for LGBT rights. Judy and her husband, Dennis Shepard, have lived in Casper, Judy is the mother of two sons, Matthew Wayne Shepard and Logan Shepard. On October 6,1998, Judys older son Matthew was beaten and pistol whipped in Laramie, Matthew Shepard died

Republican Party (United States)
–
The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party

George W. Bush
–
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977

3.
Governor Bush (right) with father, former president George H. W. Bush and wife, Laura, in 1997

United States Assistant Attorney General

1.
The flag of a U.S. Assistant Attorney General.

Office of Legal Council
–
The Office of Legal Counsel is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney Generals position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies. The Office of Legal Counsel was created in 1934 by an act of US Congress and it was first headed by an assistant solicitor general. In 1951, Attorney Gen

United States Department of Justice
–
The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. In its early years, the DOJ vigorously prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members, the Department of Justice administers several federal law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The department has responsibility

Ronald Reagan
–
Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who was the 40th President of the United States, from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, he was the 33rd Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Raised in a family in small towns of northern Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka Col

Democratic Party (United States)
–
The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democrati

Al Gore
–
Albert Arnold Al Gore Jr. is an American politician and environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Clintons running mate in their campaign in 1992. At the end of Clintons second term, Gore was picked as the Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential election,

Florida election recount
–
That in turn gave Bush a majority of votes in the Electoral College and victory in the presidential election. Gore phoned Bush the night of the election to concede, then retracted his concession after learning how close the Florida count was, Bush led the election-night vote count in Florida by 1,784 votes. The small margin produced an automatic re

4.
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris became a controversial figure during the Florida electoral recount.

Newsweek
–
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine founded in 1933. It was published in four English language editions and 12 global editions written in the language of the circulation region, between 2008 and 2012, Newsweek underwent internal and external contractions designed to shift the magazines focus and audience while improving its finances. Inste

The New York Times
–
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the lar

Freedom to Marry
–
Freedom to Marry was the national bipartisan organization dedicated to winning marriage for same-sex couples in the United States. Freedom to Marry was founded in New York City in 2003 by Evan Wolfson, Wolfson served as president of the organization through the June 2015 victory at the Supreme Court, until the organization’s official closing in Feb

1.
Freedom to Marry

2.
Freedom to Marry in 2006

Evan Wolfson
–
Evan Wolfson is an attorney and gay rights advocate. He is the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a group favoring same-sex marriage in the United States and he was listed as one of Time magazines 100 Most Influential People in the World. He has taught as a professor at Columbia Law School, Rutgers Law School. Wolfson was born in Brooklyn,

Peter Thiel
–
Peter Andreas Thiel is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and author. Thiel was born in Frankfurt, and holds German citizenship and he moved with his family to the United States as an infant, and spent a portion of his upbringing in Africa before returning to the U. S. and attending San Mateo High School. He studied philos

John Lithgow
–
John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, singer, comedian and author. Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and his performances in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment each earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. On th

2.
John Lithgow on the red carpet at the 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on August 28, 1988.

Morgan Freeman
–
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer and narrator. He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and he rose to fame as part of the cast of the 1970s childrens program The Electric Company. Morgan Freeman is ranked as the 4th highest box office star with over $4.316 billion total box office gross, Morgan Freeman was

Ellen Barkin
–
Ellen Rona Barkin is an American actress and film producer. In 1989, Barkin received positive reviews for her roles in films Johnny Handsome, in 1991, for her leading role in comedy film Switch, Barkin received Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Her following films credits include Man Trouble, This Bo

1.
Hollingsworth v. Perry
–
Hollingsworth v. Perry refers to a series of United States federal court cases that legalized same-sex marriage in the State of California. The case began in 2009 in the U. S. District Court for the Northern District of California and this decision overturned ballot initiative Proposition 8, which had banned same-sex marriage. After the State of California refused to defend Proposition 8, the sponsors of Proposition 8 intervened and appealed to the Supreme Court. The case was litigated during the governorships of both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jerry Brown, and was known as Perry v. Schwarzenegger and Perry v. Brown. It eventually reached the United States Supreme Court as Hollingsworth v, the salient effect of the ruling was that same-sex marriage in California resumed under the district court trial decision from 2010. The case was docketed with the Supreme Court at 570 U. S. ___, in May 2008, the California Supreme Court held in the case In re Marriage Cases that state statutes limiting marriage to opposite-sex applicants violated the California Constitution. The following month, same-sex couples were able to marry in California, in November 2008, Californias electorate adopted Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that restored the opposite-sex limitation on marriage. Following the adoption of Proposition 8, several lawsuits were filed that challenged the validity of the amendment under various state constitutional provisions. On May 26,2009, the California Supreme Court held, in Strauss v. Horton, that Proposition 8 was a lawful enactment, the couples legal team was led by David Boies and former U. S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who had opposed each other in Bush v. Gore. They were listed on the 2010 Time 100 for their nonpartisan, Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union opposed the filing because they felt a federal challenge at this time might do more harm than good. Olson and AFER rebuffed this argument and defended the timing of the lawsuit, following a pre-trial hearing on July 2,2009, the three legal groups moved to intervene in the lawsuit, as did the City of San Francisco in a separate filing. The plaintiffs opposed allowing the groups or the City to intervene, on August 19, Judge Walker denied the legal groups motions to intervene but granted the Citys, albeit in a limited capacity. In May 2009, the Alameda County Clerk-Registrar, Patrick OConnell, denied Kristin Perry, for the same reason, Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County Clerk, denied Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo a marriage license. The couples sued the two county clerks and several officials, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Jerry Brown. Several groups sought to intervene as plaintiffs, including the groups who had prosecuted the In re Marriage Cases, San Francisco also filed a motion to intervene in the case. City Attorney Dennis Herrera said that his office is singularly well-prepared to help put anti-gay discrimination on trial based on the facts, Walker permitted only San Francisco to intervene, as it could speak to the impact of Proposition 8 on local governments. He also ordered the general to assist San Francisco in analyzing Proposition 8s impact

Hollingsworth v. Perry
–
A demonstration in front of the Supreme Court on the day of oral arguments
Hollingsworth v. Perry
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Plaintiffs Perry (left) and Stier at the 2013 San Francisco Pride Parade shortly after their marriage at San Francisco City Hall

2.
Proposition 8
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Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 California state elections. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26,2013. The official proponents justifications for the measure were analyzed in over fifty pages covering eighty findings of fact, the state government supported the ruling and refused to defend the law. The ruling was stayed pending appeal by the proponents of the initiative, on February 7,2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, reached the same conclusion as the district court, but on narrower grounds. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for California to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples, the ruling was stayed pending appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The decision left the district courts 2010 ruling intact, in 2000, the State of California adopted Proposition 22 which, as an ordinary statute, forbade recognition or licensing of same-sex marriages in the state. Proposition 8 was created by opponents of same-sex marriage prior to the ruling on In re Marriage Cases as a voter ballot initiative. The proposition did not affect domestic partnerships in California, nor did it reverse same-sex marriages that had performed during the interim period May to November 2008. Proposition 8 came into effect on November 5,2008. Demonstrations and protests occurred across the state and nation, in Strauss v. Horton, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, but allowed the existing same-sex marriages to stand. Although upheld in State court, Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional by the federal courts, Walker issued a stay against enforcing Proposition 8 and a stay to determine suspension of his ruling pending appeal. The State of California did not appeal the ruling leaving the initiative proponents, the California Supreme Court ruled that they did. This left the federal district court ruling against Proposition 8 as the final outcome. To qualify for the ballot, Proposition 8 needed 694,354 valid petition signatures, the initiative proponents submitted 1,120,801 signatures, and on June 2,2008, the initiative qualified for the November 4,2008 election ballot through the random sample signature check. Proposition 8 consisted of two sections and its full text was, Section I. Section 7.5 is added to the California Constitution, to read, On July 16,2008, the petition asserted the proposition should not be on the ballot on the grounds it was a constitutional revision that only the Legislature or a constitutional convention could place before voters. Opponents also argued that the petitions circulated to qualify the measure for the ballot inaccurately summarized its effect, the court denied the petition without comment. As a general rule, it is improper for courts to adjudicate pre-election challenges to a measures substantive validity and they also declared that the same-sex marriages performed prior to the passing of Prop 8 would remain valid

Proposition 8
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As California State Attorney General, Jerry Brown (shown here campaigning for Governor in 2010) had the ballot's description and title changed from "Limit on Marriage" to "Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry"
Proposition 8
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Results by county
Proposition 8
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Rally for Yes on Prop 8 in Fresno
Proposition 8
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San Francisco MayorGavin Newsom speaks at an Anti-Proposition 8 Rally on Sproul steps at UC Berkeley

3.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital

Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
Los Angeles

4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci

5.
Bruce Cohen
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Bruce L. Cohen is a film, television, and theater producer. Cohen was born to a Jewish family and raised in Falls Church, in 1983, he graduated from Yale University with a Bachelor of Arts in Film Studies. Cohen won the Best Picture Oscar for producing American Beauty and he earned additional Best Picture nominations for Milk and Silver Linings Playbook. American Beauty, directed by Sam Mendes, won a total of five Oscars, as well as the Golden Globe, British Academy of Film and Television, and Producers Guild of America awards. Milk, directed by Gus Van Sant, was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won Oscars for Best Actor and Best Original Screenplay, Silver Linings Playbook, written and directed by David O. Russell, was nominated for eight Oscars. It was the first film in 31 years to be nominated in all four acting categories, among the other films Cohen has produced is Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton, which was both a Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee for Best Picture. He is currently a producer of the stage musical version of Big Fish, now on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre, with direction. In television, Cohen was executive producer of the ABC series Pushing Daisies and he was also executive producer of the CBS special Movies Rock, and was nominated for an Emmy in 2011 for producing the 83rd Annual Academy Awards. He is married to Gabe Catone and they have a two-year-old daughter, bruce Cohen at the Internet Movie Database

Bruce Cohen
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Cohen at the mental health initiative Campaign to Change Direction at the Newseum in Washington, March 4, 2015

6.
Dustin Lance Black
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Dustin Lance Black is an American screenwriter, director, film and television producer and LGBT rights activist. He has won a Writers Guild of America Award and an Academy Award for the 2008 film Milk and he was born in Sacramento, California as Dustin Lance Garrison. His father walked out on his mother, Roseanna. Following his mothers marriage to Merrill Durant Black in 1981, he and his brothers were adopted by their stepfather. They grew up in a Mormon household, at first in San Antonio, Texas, growing up surrounded by Mormon culture and military bases, Black worried about his sexuality. When he found himself attracted to a boy in his neighborhood at the age of six or seven, and if I ever admit it, Ill be hurt, and Ill be brought down. He says that his awareness of his sexuality made him dark, shy. He came out in his year of college. Black attended the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Theater, Film and he graduated with honors from UCLAs School of Theater, Film and Television in 1996. In 2000, Black wrote and directed The Journey of Jared Price, a gay film, and Something Close to Heaven. In 2001, he directed and was a subject in the documentary On the Bus about a Nevada road trip, raised as Mormon, he was hired as the only such writer on the HBO drama series Big Love about a polygamous family. He has written for all seasons, serving on one as a staff writer. Black had first visited San Francisco in the early 1990s, while AIDS was devastating the citys gay community, Black said that, Hearing about Harvey was about the only hopeful story there was at the time. He had first viewed Rob Epsteins documentary The Times of Harvey Milk when he was in college, the screenplay was written on spec, but Black showed the script to Jones, who passed it on to his friend Gus Van Sant, who signed on to direct the feature. Black is an old friend of Milk producer Dan Jinks, who signed on to the biopic after he called Black to congratulate him, Blacks film Pedro, profiling the life of AIDS activist and reality television personality Pedro Zamora, premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Coming up, Paris Barclay is slated to direct his screenplay A Life Like Mine, Black directed his own script Virginia, starring Jennifer Connelly. On February 22,2009, Black won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Milk at the 81st Academy Awards and he wore a White Knot to the ceremony as a symbol of solidarity with the marriage equality movement. On October 11,2009, Black marched in the National Equality March, in 2010, Black narrated 8, The Mormon Proposition, a documentary about the involvement of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Californias Proposition 8

7.
Chad Griffin
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Chad Hunter Griffin is an American political strategist best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights in the United States. Griffin got his start in politics volunteering for the Bill Clinton presidential campaign, AFERs challenge, Perry v. Brown was ultimately successful following a decision by the United States Supreme Court in June 2013. In 2012, Griffin was appointed president of the Human Rights Campaign, Griffin was born in Hope, Arkansas, and grew up 45 miles to the northeast in Arkadelphia. Griffin dropped out of college and became, at the age of 19 and he worked as a White House Press Office manager for two years. There, he acted as White House liaison to the 1995 film The American President. Griffin went on to lead Reiners charitable foundation and to work with Reiner on numerous political efforts, AFER is a nonprofit organization formed to challenge the federal constitutionality of Californias Proposition 8, which limited legal recognition of marriage in California to opposite-sex couples. After leaving the White House, Griffin entered the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, Griffin was also a part of Griffin Schein, a consulting firm that he founded with Kristina Schake, former communications director for Michelle Obama. Griffin, who is gay, is best known for his work advocating for LGBT rights. Griffin and Reiner founded AFER in 2008 to challenge the federal constitutionality of Californias Proposition 8, prior to AFERs founding, Griffin had raised funds and produced television ads for the No on 8 campaign. This was Griffins first professional work on LGBT rights, following Proposition 8s passage in 2008, Griffin and Reiner reflected on the No campaigns failure, and the possibility of mounting a federal legal challenge. An acquaintance of Reiners suggested speaking to conservative lawyer Theodore Olson, Griffin saw the case and Olsons support as an opportunity to frame the same-sex marriage debate in nonpartisan terms. It was Olson who later suggested recruiting the contrastingly liberal David Boies as co-counsel, Griffin approached Boies, who quickly accepted. Meanwhile, Griffin began discussing the case with other LGBT rights organizations. These same groups would later ask to intervene in the lawsuit, an attempt which Griffin fought, in a letter to the leaders of those organizations, Griffin wrote You have unrelentingly and unequivocally acted to undermine this case even before it was filed. In light of this, it is inconceivable that you would zealously and effectively litigate this case if you were successful in intervening, Griffin also expressed concern that intervention would complicate the trial, making it less efficient and would, as a result, ultimately weaken their case. In May 2009 AFER announced its creation after filing their lawsuit, now styled Hollingsworth v. Perry, the lawsuits plaintiffs are two same-sex couples, Kristin Perry and Sandra Stier, Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo. Governor of California Jerry Brown and other officials are listed as defendants in their official capacities. Perry was successful at district court and at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, on June 28, California resumed marrying same-sex couples

8.
Ken Mehlman
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Kenneth Brian Ken Mehlman is an American businessman, attorney, and political figure. Prior to joining KKR, Mehlman spent a year as an attorney, Mehlman held several national posts in the Republican Party and the George W. Bush Administration. In 2000 he was appointed Director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, Mehlman managed Bushs 2004 re-election campaign, and was 62nd Chairman of the Republican National Committee from 2005–07. In 2007, Bush appointed Mehlman to a term on the U. S. In January of 2017 Mehlman announced that he would act as Chairman of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Policy Advisory Board, in 2010, Mehlman came out as gay in an interview with journalist Marc Ambinder, making him one of the few prominent openly gay figures in the Republican Party. After coming out, Mehlman advocated for the recognition of same-sex marriage, Mehlman was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He is one of two born to Judith and Arthur Mehlman. His father was director of MuniMae and a partner at KPMG. Mehlmans brother, Bruce, works as a lobbyist at Mehlman Vogel Castagnetti, Mehlman received his undergraduate degree in 1988 from Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he became a member of Phi Kappa Taus Xi chapter. He received his J. D. from Harvard Law School in 1991, Mehlman served as Smith’s legislative director from 1994 to 1996, and then as chief of staff to Representative Kay Granger of Texass 12th congressional district from 1996 to 1999. Mehlman served as director for the 2000 presidential campaign of George W. Bush. When Bush became President, Mehlman became director of the White House Office of Political Affairs and he managed the Bush re-election campaign in 2004. In January 2005, the American Association of Political Consultants gave Mehlman the Campaign Manager of the Year award for his management of the Bush/Cheney presidential ticket, Mehlman joined Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co in 2008. He is KKR’s Global Head of Public Affairs, helping assess, Mehlman also oversees the firm’s global external affairs, including corporate marketing, regulatory affairs & public policy, and communications. Mehlman leads KKRs Environmental Social Governance programs for the firm and its portfolio companies, in addition to his role at KKR, Mehlman is a trustee of New Yorks Mount Sinai Hospital, Franklin & Marshall College, and Teach for America. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves as Chairman of the American Investment Council and he is also a trustee and board member of Sponsors for Educational Opportunity. Mehlman was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board in June,2016, on January 10,2017, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook that Mehlman and David Plouffe would be joining the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. Mehlman will chair the philanthropy’s public policy advisory board, which he stated in his official Facebook post will consist of “a diverse group of advisors, Mehlman announced after the November 2006 general election that he would not seek re-election to another term as Republican National Chairman

Ken Mehlman
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Mehlman in greyscale sitting in a chair

9.
Rob Reiner
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Robert Rob Reiner is an American actor, writer, director, producer, and activist. As an actor, Reiner first came to prominence with the role of Michael Stivic on All in the Family. That role earned him two Emmy Awards during the 1970s and he also directed the psychological horror-thriller Misery, the romantic comedy fantasy adventure The Princess Bride and the heavy metal mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap. Reiner was born to a Jewish family in the Bronx, New York, and is the son of Estelle Reiner, an actress, and Carl Reiner, a renowned comedian, actor, writer, producer and director. As a child, Reiner lived at 48 Bonnie Meadow Road in New Rochelle, New York and he studied at the UCLA Film School. In the late 1960s, Reiner acted in bit roles in television shows including Batman, The Andy Griffith Show, Room 222, Gomer Pyle, U. S. M. C. He began his writing for the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in 1968 and 1969. The characters nickname became closely associated with him, even after he had left the role, Reiner has stated, I could win the Nobel Prize and theyd write Meathead wins the Nobel Prize. For his performance, Reiner won two Emmy Awards in addition to three other nominations and five Golden Globe nominations, after an extended absence, Reiner has recently returned to television acting with a recurring role on New Girl. In 1972, Reiner, Phil Mishkin, and Gerry Isenberg created the situation comedy The Super for ABC. Starring Richard S. Castellano, the show depicted the life of the harried Italian American superintendent of a New York City apartment building, Reiner and Mishkin co-wrote the premiere episode. Beginning in the 1980s, Reiner became known as a director of several successful Hollywood films that many different genres. Several of these film remains popular with fans and critics. He often collaborates with film editor Robert Leighton, whom he shares with fellow director-actor Christopher Guest as their go-to editor. Reiner has gone on to other critically and commercially successful films with his own company. These include several iconic films such as the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally, subsequent films directed by Reiner include the political romance The American President, the courtroom drama Ghosts of Mississippi, and the uplifting comedy The Bucket List. He has also parodied himself with cameos in such as Dickie Roberts. Reiner has devoted time and energy to liberal activism in recent years

10.
California Proposition 8 (2008)
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Proposition 8, known informally as Prop 8, was a California ballot proposition and a state constitutional amendment passed in the November 2008 California state elections. Proposition 8 was ultimately ruled unconstitutional by a court in 2010, although the court decision did not go into effect until June 26,2013. The official proponents justifications for the measure were analyzed in over fifty pages covering eighty findings of fact, the state government supported the ruling and refused to defend the law. The ruling was stayed pending appeal by the proponents of the initiative, on February 7,2012, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 2-1 decision, reached the same conclusion as the district court, but on narrower grounds. The court ruled that it was unconstitutional for California to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples, the ruling was stayed pending appeal to the United States Supreme Court. The decision left the district courts 2010 ruling intact, in 2000, the State of California adopted Proposition 22 which, as an ordinary statute, forbade recognition or licensing of same-sex marriages in the state. Proposition 8 was created by opponents of same-sex marriage prior to the ruling on In re Marriage Cases as a voter ballot initiative. The proposition did not affect domestic partnerships in California, nor did it reverse same-sex marriages that had performed during the interim period May to November 2008. Proposition 8 came into effect on November 5,2008. Demonstrations and protests occurred across the state and nation, in Strauss v. Horton, the California Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, but allowed the existing same-sex marriages to stand. Although upheld in State court, Proposition 8 was ruled unconstitutional by the federal courts, Walker issued a stay against enforcing Proposition 8 and a stay to determine suspension of his ruling pending appeal. The State of California did not appeal the ruling leaving the initiative proponents, the California Supreme Court ruled that they did. This left the federal district court ruling against Proposition 8 as the final outcome. To qualify for the ballot, Proposition 8 needed 694,354 valid petition signatures, the initiative proponents submitted 1,120,801 signatures, and on June 2,2008, the initiative qualified for the November 4,2008 election ballot through the random sample signature check. Proposition 8 consisted of two sections and its full text was, Section I. Section 7.5 is added to the California Constitution, to read, On July 16,2008, the petition asserted the proposition should not be on the ballot on the grounds it was a constitutional revision that only the Legislature or a constitutional convention could place before voters. Opponents also argued that the petitions circulated to qualify the measure for the ballot inaccurately summarized its effect, the court denied the petition without comment. As a general rule, it is improper for courts to adjudicate pre-election challenges to a measures substantive validity and they also declared that the same-sex marriages performed prior to the passing of Prop 8 would remain valid

California Proposition 8 (2008)
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As California State Attorney General, Jerry Brown (shown here campaigning for Governor in 2010) had the ballot's description and title changed from "Limit on Marriage" to "Eliminates the right of same-sex couples to marry"
California Proposition 8 (2008)
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Results by county
California Proposition 8 (2008)
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Rally for Yes on Prop 8 in Fresno
California Proposition 8 (2008)
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San Francisco MayorGavin Newsom speaks at an Anti-Proposition 8 Rally on Sproul steps at UC Berkeley

11.
Equal Protection Clause
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The Equal Protection Clause is part of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides that no state shall deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. The meaning of the Equal Protection Clause has been the subject of much debate and this clause was the basis for Brown v. The Equal Protection Clause itself applies only to state and local governments, however, the Supreme Court held in Bolling v. Sharpe that equal protection requirements apply to the federal government through the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment. Before and during the Civil War, the Southern states violated the rights of speech of pro-Union citizens, anti-slavery advocates. During the Civil War, the Southern states stripped many white citizens of their citizenship and banished them from the states. Shortly after the Union victory in the American Civil War, the Thirteenth Amendment was proposed by Congress and ratified by the states in 1865, many ex-Confederate states then adopted Black Codes following the war. These laws severely restricted the rights of blacks to hold property, including property and many forms of personal property. These codes also created harsher criminal penalties for blacks than for whites, because of the inequality these Black Codes imposed, Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866. This Act provided that all born in the United States were citizens. Full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property, president Andrew Johnson Vetoed the Civil Rights bill of 1866 amid concerns that Congress did not have the constitutional authority to pass such a law. Such doubts were one factor that led Congress to begin to draft, moreover, Congress wanted to protect white Unionists who were under personal and legal attack in the former Confederacy. The effort was led by the Radical Republicans of both houses of Congress, including John Bingham, Charles Sumner, and Thaddeus Stevens, the most important among these, however, was Bingham, a Congressman from Ohio, who drafted the language of the Equal Protection Clause. The Southern states were opposed to the Civil Rights Act, but in 1865 Congress, exercising its power under Article I, section 5, clause 1 of the Constitution, to be the Judge of the. Qualifications of its own Members, had excluded Southerners from Congress, declaring that their states, having rebelled against the Union, could therefore not elect members to Congress. It was this fact that the Fourteenth Amendment was enacted by a rump Congress—that allowed the Equal Protection Clause to be passed by Congress. Its ratification by the former Confederate states was made a condition of their reacceptance into the Union, during the debate in Congress, more than one version of the clause was considered. Here is the first version, The Congress shall have power to all laws which shall be necessary

Equal Protection Clause
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Congressman John Bingham of Ohio was the principal framer of the Equal Protection Clause.
Equal Protection Clause
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The Court that decided Plessy
Equal Protection Clause
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The U.S. Supreme Court Building opened in 1935, inscribed with the words " Equal Justice Under Law " which were inspired by the Equal Protection Clause.

12.
United States Solicitor General
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The United States Solicitor General is the third-highest-ranking official in the U. S. Department of Justice. The United States Solicitor General is the appointed to represent the federal government of the United States before the Supreme Court of the United States. The current Acting Solicitor General, Jeffrey Wall, took office on March 10,2017, the Solicitor General determines the legal position that the United States will take in the Supreme Court. In the federal courts of appeal, the Office of the Solicitor General reviews cases decided against the United States and determines whether the government will seek review in the Supreme Court. The Office of the Solicitor General also reviews cases decided against the United States in the district courts. The Solicitor General is assisted by four Deputy Solicitors General and seventeen Assistants to the Solicitor General, three of the deputies are career attorneys in the Department of Justice. The remaining deputy is known as the Principal Deputy, sometimes called the deputy and, like the Solicitor General. The current Principal Deputy is Jeffrey B, Wall, who succeeded Noel J. Francisco after Francisco was nominated to be Solicitor General in March 2017. The other deputies currently are Michael Dreeben, Edwin Kneedler, the Solicitor General or one of the deputies typically argues the most important cases in the Supreme Court. Cases not argued by the Solicitor General may be argued by one of the assistants or another government attorney, the Solicitors General tend to argue 6–9 cases per Supreme Court term, while deputies argue 4–5 cases and assistants each argue 2–3 cases. As the most frequent advocate before the Court, the Office of the Solicitor General generally argues dozens of each term. As a result, the Solicitor General tends to remain particularly comfortable during oral arguments that other advocates would find intimidating, other than the justices themselves, the Solicitor General is among the most influential and knowledgeable members of the legal community with regard to Supreme Court litigation. Five Solicitors General have later served on the Supreme Court, William Howard Taft, Stanley Forman Reed, Robert H. Jackson, Thurgood Marshall, some who have had other positions in the office of the Solicitor General have also later been appointed to the Supreme Court. Only one former Solicitor General has been nominated to the Supreme Court unsuccessfully, eight other Solicitors General have served on the United States Courts of Appeals. Within the Justice Department, the Solicitor General exerts significant influence on all appeals brought by the department, the Solicitor General is the only U. S. officer that is statutorily required to be learned in law. Whenever the DOJ wins at the stage and the losing party appeals. However, if the DOJ is the party at the trial stage. For example, should the tort division lose a jury trial in district court

13.
Theodore B. Olson
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Theodore Bevry Ted Olson is an American lawyer, practicing at the Washington, D. C. office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. Olson served as United States Solicitor General from June 2001 to July 2004 under President George W. Bush, Theodore Olson was born in Chicago and grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area in Mountain View, California. He graduated from Los Altos High in 1958, in 1962, Olson completed his undergraduate degrees in communications and history at the University of the Pacific. He attended law school, earning his law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, at Boalt, Olson served as a contributor to the California Law Review. Olson joined the Los Angeles, California office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher as an associate in 1965, in 1972, he was named Partner. From 1981 to 1984, Olson served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Reagan administration, while serving in the Reagan administration, Olson was legal counsel to President Reagan during the Iran-Contra affairs investigation phase. The Judiciary Committee forwarded a copy of the report to the Attorney General requesting the appointment of an independent counsel investigation and he argued that the broad powers of the independent counsel could be easily abused, or corrupted by partisanship. In the Supreme Court Case Morrison v. Olson, the Court disagreed with Olson and found in favor of the Plaintiff and he returned to private law practice as a partner in the Washington, D. C. office of his firm, Gibson Dunn. A high-profile client in the 1980s was Jonathan Pollard, who had convicted of selling government secrets to Israel. Olson handled the appeal to United States Court of Appeals for the D. C, Olson argued the life sentence Pollard received was in violation of the plea bargain agreement, which had specifically excluded a life sentence. Olson also argued that the violation of the bargain was grounds for a mistrial. The Court of Appeals ruled that no grounds for mistrial existed, Olson successfully represented presidential candidate George W. Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore, which effectively ended the recount of the contested 2000 Presidential election. Olson was nominated for the office of Solicitor General by President Bush on February 14,2001, was confirmed by the United States Senate on May 24,2001, and took office on June 11,2001. In July 2004, Olson retired as Solicitor General and returned to practice at the Washington office of Gibson Dunn. In 2006, Olson represented a defendant journalist in the case filed by Wen Ho Lee. Lee sued the government to discover which public officials had named him as a suspect to journalists before he had been charged. Olson wrote a brief on behalf of one of the involved in the case, saying that journalists should not have to identify confidential sources. In 2011, Olson represented the National Football League Players Association in the 2011 NFL lockout, Olson, over time, came to believe that there is a constitutional right for same-sex marriage

14.
David Boies
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David Boies is an American lawyer and chairman of the law firm Boies, Schiller & Flexner. He has been involved in various cases in the United States. Boies was born in Sycamore, Illinois, to two teachers, and raised in a farming community and his first job was when he was 10 years old—a paper route with 120 customers. Boies has dyslexia and he did not learn to read until the third grade, journalist Malcolm Gladwell has described the unique processes of reading and learning Boies experienced due to his dyslexia. Boies’s mother, for instance, would read stories to him when he was a child, in 1954, the family moved to California. Boies graduated from Fullerton Union High School in Fullerton, California and he currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, which is a museum dedicated to the U. S. Constitution. Boies was an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, where he started law school graduation in 1966. He left Cravath in 1997 after a client objected to his representation of the New York Yankees even though the firm itself had found no conflict. He left the firm within 48 hours of being informed of the objection and created his own firm, now known as Boies. It is currently rated 17th in overall prestige and 12th among New York law firms by Vault. com, Boies has taught courses at New York University Law School and Cardozo School of Law. At Cravath, Boies assisted top litigator Thomas D. Barr in defending IBM in the 13-year antitrust cases brought by the Justice Department, also at Cravath, he represented the Justice Department in the United States v. Microsoft case. Boies won a victory at trial, and the verdict was upheld on appeal, the appellate court overturned the relief ordered back to the trial court for further proceedings. Thereafter, the George W. Bush administration settled the case, bill Gates said Boies was out to destroy Microsoft. In 2001, the Washington Monthly called Boies a brilliant trial lawyer, a latter-day Clarence Darrow, Boies represented New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in a suit against Major League Baseball. This involved an action against all the teams, the Atlanta Braves were owned by Time Warner, a longtime Cravath client, who objected to his representation of the Yankees. He defended CBS in the action brought by General William Westmoreland, the general abandoned his case during the trial. Following the 2000 U. S. presidential election, he represented Vice President Al Gore in Bush v. Gore, Boies defended Napster when the company was sued by the RIAA for facilitating copyright infringement. In November 2003, he represented Andrew Fastow, deposed Chief Financial Officer of Enron, Boies firm was retained by the SCO Group, during the SCO-Linux controversies, in their pursuit of alleged infringement of their rights to the Unix intellectual properties

15.
Bush v. Gore
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Bush v. Gore,531 U. S.98, is the United States Supreme Court decision that resolved the dispute surrounding the 2000 presidential election. The ruling was issued on December 12,2000, on December 9, the Court had preliminarily halted the Florida recount that was occurring. Eight days earlier, the Court unanimously decided the closely related case of Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board,531 U. S.70, the Electoral College was scheduled to meet on December 18,2000, to decide the election. The vote regarding the Equal Protection Clause was 7–2, and regarding the lack of a method was 5–4. The Supreme Court decision allowed the previous vote certification to stand, as made by Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris, Florida subsequently changed to new voting machines to avoid punch cards which had allowed dimpled or hanging chads. In the United States, each state conducts its own popular vote election for President, the voters are actually voting for a slate of electors, each of whom pledges to vote for a particular candidate for each office, in the Electoral College. Article II, §1, cl.2 of the U. S, Constitution provides that each state legislature decides how electors are chosen. Early in U. S. history, most state legislatures appointed the slate of electors for each of their respective states. Today, state legislatures have enacted laws to provide for the selection of electors by popular vote within each state, while these laws vary, most states, including Florida, award all electoral votes to the candidate for either office who receives a plurality of the states popular vote. Any candidate who receives a majority of all electoral votes nationally wins the Presidential or Vice Presidential election. On November 8,2000, the Florida Division of Elections reported that Bush won with 48. 8% of the vote in Florida, the margin of victory was less than 0. 5% of the votes cast, so a statutorily-mandated automatic machine recount occurred. On November 10, with the machine recount finished in all but one county, Gore did not, however, request any recounts in counties that traditionally vote Republican. The four counties granted the request and began manual recounts, on November 14, the statutory deadline, the Florida Circuit Court ruled that the seven-day deadline was mandatory, but that the counties could amend their returns at a later date. The court also ruled that the Secretary, after considering all attendant facts, before the 5 pm deadline on November 14, Volusia County completed its manual recount and certified its results. Four counties submitted statements, and after reviewing the submissions Harris determined that none justified an extension of the filing deadline, on that date, she certified Bush the winner and litigation ensued. The issue is not, as the dissent puts it, whether counting every legally cast vote can constitute irreparable harm, count first, and rule upon legality afterwards, is not a recipe for producing election results that have the public acceptance democratic stability requires. The dissenters opined, Counting every legally cast vote cannot constitute irreparable harm, preventing the recount from being completed will inevitably cast a cloud on the legitimacy of the election. The oral argument in Bush v. Gore occurred on December 11, theodore Olson, a Washington, D. C. lawyer and future Solicitor General, delivered Bushs oral argument

16.
8 (play)
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It was created by Dustin Lance Black in light of the courts denial of a motion to release a video recording of the trial and to give the public a true account of what transpired in the courtroom. The play is written in the style of verbatim theatre reenactment, using transcripts from the trial, journalist records, and media interviews from the plaintiffs, defendants and proponents involved. 8 first premiered on September 19,2011 at the Eugene ONeill Theatre in New York City, a radio adaptation was broadcast on JOY94.9, a GLBTIQ community radio station in Melbourne, Australia, on 27 March 2014. In May 2009, AFER filed a lawsuit, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the same-sex couples were represented by David Boies and former U. S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson, two high profile attorneys who opposed each other in the U. S. Supreme Court case, the defense presented only two expert witnesses who were willing to testify under oath. David Blankenhorn, who had allowed to testify for the defense, was ultimately judged as lacking the qualifications to offer opinion testimony. During Blankenhorns cross-examination, he identified 23 benefits of adopting same-sex marriage, published on page 203 of his book The Future of Marriage, opponents of same-sex marriage were unable to provide credible evidence proving their claim that same-sex marriage would harm society or the institution of marriage. The following is a list of the cast of characters, along with the actors that portrayed them in the two premieres

8 (play)
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Official Poster

17.
Human Rights Campaign
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The Human Rights Campaign is the largest LGBT civil rights advocacy group and political lobbying organization in the United States. The organization has a number of legislative initiatives as well as supporting resources for LGBT individuals, the Human Rights Campaigns leadership includes President Chad Griffin. Steve Endean, who had worked with a previously established Gay Rights National Lobby from 1978, in 1983, Vic Basile, at the time one of the leading LGBT rights activists in Washington, D. C. was elected as the first executive director. In October 1986, the HRC Foundation was formed as a non-profit organization, tim McFeeley, a Harvard Law School graduate, founder of the Boston Lesbian and Gay Political Alliance, and a co-chair of the New England HRC Committee, was elected the new executive director. Total membership was then approximately 25,000 members, in 1992, HRC endorsed a presidential candidate for the first time, Bill Clinton. In March 1993, HRC began a new project, National Coming Out Day, from January 1995 until January 2004, Elizabeth Birch served as the executive director of the HRC. Under her leadership, the more than quadrupled its membership to 500,000 members. In 1995, the dropped the word Fund from its name. That same year, it underwent a complete reorganization, the HRC Foundation added new programs such as the Workplace Project and the Family Project, while HRC itself broadly expanded its research, communications, and marketing/public relations functions. The organization also unveiled a new logo, an equal sign inside of a blue square. As part of the surrounding the Millennium March on Washington. Billed as a concert to end hate crimes, Equality Rocks honored hate crime victims and their families, such as featured speakers Dennis and Judy Shepard, the parents of Matthew Shepard. The event included Melissa Etheridge, Garth Brooks, Pet Shop Boys, k. d. lang, Nathan Lane, Rufus Wainwright, Albita Rodríguez, Elizabeth Birchs successor, Cheryl Jacques, resigned in November 2004 after only 11 months as executive director. Jacques said she had resigned over a difference in management philosophy, in March 2005, HRC announced the appointment of Joe Solmonese as the president. He served in that position until stepping down in May 2012 to co-chair the Barack Obama presidential campaign, on March 10,2010, the first legally recognized same-sex weddings in the District of Columbia were held at the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign. On August 9,2007, HRC and Logo TV co-hosted a forum for 2008 Democratic presidential candidates dedicated specifically to LGBT issues, in 2010, HRC lobbied for the repeal of the United States ban on HIV-positive peoples entry into the country for travel or immigration. In September 2011, it was announced that Joe Solmonese would step down as president of HRC following the end of his contract in 2012, Griffin took office on June 11,2012. In 2012, HRC said that it had raised and contributed $20 million to re-elect President Obama, in 2013, HRC conducted a postcard campaign in support of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act

18.
Republican National Committee
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The Republican National Committee is a U. S. political committee that provides national leadership for the Republican Party of the United States. It is responsible for developing and promoting the Republican political platform, as well as coordinating fundraising and it is also responsible for organizing and running the Republican National Convention. Ronna Romney McDaniel is the current committee chair, the RNCs main counterpart is the Democratic National Committee. The 1856 Republican National Convention appointed the first RNC and it consisted of one member from each state and territory to serve for four years. Each national convention since then has followed the precedent of equal representation for each state or territory, from 1924 to 1952, there was a national committeeman and national committeewoman from each state and U. S. possession, and from Washington, D. C. As of 2011, the RNC has 168 members, the only person to have chaired the RNC and later become U. S. president is George H. W. Bush. A number of the chairs of the RNC have been state governors, on November 24,2008, Steele launched his campaign for the RNC chairmanship with the launching of his website. On January 30,2009, Steele won the chairmanship of the RNC in the sixth round, I think I may have some keys to open the door, some juice to turn on the lights, he said. Six people ran for the 2009 RNC Chairmanship, Steele, Ken Blackwell, Mike Duncan, Saul Anuzis, Katon Dawson, after Saltsmans withdrawal, there were only five candidates during the hotly contested balloting January 30,2009. After the third round of balloting that day, Steele held a lead over incumbent Mike Duncan of Kentucky. Shortly after the announcement of the standings, Duncan dropped out of contention without endorsing a candidate, after the fifth round, Steele held a ten-vote lead over Katon Dawson, with 79 votes, and Saul Anuzis dropped out. After the sixth vote, he won the chairmanship of the RNC over Dawson by a vote of 91 to 77, when I was chairman of the Republican National Committee the last time we lost the White House in 1992 we focused exclusively on 1993 and 1994. And at the end of time, we had both houses of Congress with Republican majorities, and wed gone from 17 Republican governors to 31. So anyone talking about 2012 today doesnt have their eye on the ball, what we ought to worry about is rebuilding our party over the next year and particularly in 2010, Barbour said at the November 2008 Republican Governors conference. Michael Steele ran for re-election at the 2011 RNC winter meeting, steeles critics increasingly called on him to step down as RNC Chair when his term ended in 2011. A debate for Chairman hosted by Americans for Tax Reform took place on January 3 at the National Press Club, the election for Chairman took place January 14 at the RNCs winter meeting with Reince Priebus winning on the seventh ballot after Steele and Wagner withdrew. He was re-elected to a term in 2015, setting him up to become the longest serving head of the party ever. Trump then recommended Ronna Romney McDaniel as RNC Chairwoman, and she was elected to that role by the RNC in January 2017

Republican National Committee
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Chairman of the Republican National Committee Reince Priebus at the Western Republican Leadership Conference in October 2011 in Las Vegas
Republican National Committee
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Republican National Committee

19.
White House
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The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States, located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D. C. It has been the residence of every U. S. president since John Adams in 1800, the term White House is often used to refer to actions of the president and his advisers, as in The White House announced that. The residence was designed by Irish-born architect James Hoban in the Neoclassical style, construction took place between 1792 and 1800 using Aquia Creek sandstone painted white. When Thomas Jefferson moved into the house in 1801, he added low colonnades on each wing that concealed stables and storage. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the mansion was set ablaze by the British Army in the Burning of Washington, destroying the interior, reconstruction began almost immediately, and President James Monroe moved into the partially reconstructed Executive Residence in October 1817. Exterior construction continued with the addition of the semi-circular South portico in 1824, because of crowding within the executive mansion itself, President Theodore Roosevelt had all work offices relocated to the newly constructed West Wing in 1901. Eight years later in 1909, President William Howard Taft expanded the West Wing and created the first Oval Office, in the main mansion, the third-floor attic was converted to living quarters in 1927 by augmenting the existing hip roof with long shed dormers. A newly constructed East Wing was used as an area for social events. East Wing alterations were completed in 1946, creating additional office space, by 1948, the houses load-bearing exterior walls and internal wood beams were found to be close to failure. Under Harry S. Truman, the rooms were completely dismantled. Once this work was completed, the rooms were rebuilt. The Executive Residence is made up of six stories—the Ground Floor, State Floor, Second Floor, the property is a National Heritage Site owned by the National Park Service and is part of the Presidents Park. In 2007, it was ranked second on the American Institute of Architects list of Americas Favorite Architecture, in May 1790, New York began construction of Government House for his official residence, but he never occupied it. The national capital moved to Philadelphia in December 1790, the July 1790 Residence Act named Philadelphia, Pennsylvania the temporary national capital for a 10-year period while the Federal City was under construction. The City of Philadelphia rented Robert Morriss city house at 190 High Street for Washingtons presidential residence, the first president occupied the Market Street mansion from November 1790 to March 1797, and altered it in ways that may have influenced the design of the White House. As part of an effort to have Philadelphia named the permanent national capital, Pennsylvania built a much grander presidential mansion several blocks away. President John Adams also occupied the Market Street mansion from March 1797 to May 1800, on Saturday, November 1,1800, he became the first president to occupy the White House. The Presidents House in Philadelphia became a hotel and was demolished in 1832, the Presidents House was a major feature of Pierre Charles LEnfants plan for the newly established federal city, Washington, D. C

20.
First Lady
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First Lady is an unofficial title used for the wife or hostess of a non-monarchical head of state or chief executive. The term is used to describe a woman seen to be at the top of her profession or art. Collectively, the President of the United States and his spouse are known as the First Couple and, if they have children, they are usually referred to as the First Family. The term is used, primarily in the U. S. to refer to the spouse of other non-monarchical heads of state. Some other countries have a title, formal or informal, that is or can be translated as first lady, the title is not normally used for the wife of a head of government who is not also head of state. The term in the United States is also used to refer to wives of governors and, less formally, to wives of college and it has even been used in reference to female spouses of men who were chairmen of major corporations. While there has never been a spouse of a U. S. President. First Gentleman is the equivalent of the title in countries where the head of states husband has been a man. The designation First Lady seems to have originated in the United States, in the early days of the United States, there was no generally accepted title for the wife of the president. Many early first ladies expressed their own preference for how they were addressed, indulging in no indolence, she left the pillow at dawn, and after breakfast, retired to her chamber for an hour for the study of the scriptures and devotion. However, the term first lady would not come into use until the late 1800s. Harriet Lane, niece of bachelor President James Buchanan, was the first woman to be called first lady while actually serving in that position. The phrase appeared in Frank Leslies Illustrated Monthly in 1860, when he wrote, The Lady of the White House, and by courtesy, once Harriet Lane was called first lady, the term was applied retrospectively to her predecessors. The title first gained recognition in 1877, when Mary C. Ames wrote an article in the New York City newspaper The Independent describing the inauguration of President Rutherford B and she used the term to describe his wife, Lucy Webb Hayes. The current First Lady of the United States is Melania Trump, the entire family of the head of state may be known familiarly as the First Family. The spouse of the second-in-command may be known as the Second Lady, less frequently, the family would be known as the Second Family. The spouse of the governor of a U. S. state is referred to as the First Lady or First Gentleman of that state

21.
Michelle Obama
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Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama is an American lawyer and writer who was First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017. She is married to the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama and she subsequently worked as the Associate Dean of Student Services at the University of Chicago and the Vice President for Community and External Affairs of the University of Chicago Medical Center. Barack and Michelle married in 1992 and have two daughters, Obama campaigned for her husbands presidential bid throughout 2007 and 2008, delivering a keynote address at the 2008 Democratic National Convention. As First Lady, Obama became an icon, a role model for women, and an advocate for poverty awareness, nutrition, physical activity. Her mother was a homemaker until Michelle entered high school. The Robinson and Shields families trace their roots to pre-Civil War African Americans in the American South, on her fathers side, she is descended from the Gullah people of South Carolinas Low Country region. Her paternal great-great grandfather, Jim Robinson, was a slave on Friendfield Plantation in South Carolina and her grandfather Fraser Robinson, Jr. built his own house in South Carolina. He and his wife LaVaughn returned to the Low Country after retirement, among her maternal ancestors was her great-great-great-grandmother, Melvinia Shields, a slave on Henry Walls Shields 200-acre farm in Clayton County, Georgia. Melvinias first son, Dolphus T. Shields, was biracial, based on DNA and other evidence, in 2012 researchers said his father was likely 20-year-old Charles Marion Shields, son of her master. Melvinia did not talk to relatives about Dolphus father, Dolphus Shields moved to Birmingham, Alabama after the Civil War, and some of his children migrated to Cleveland, Ohio and Chicago. Her distant ancestry includes Irish and other European roots, in addition, a paternal first cousin once-removed is the African-American Jewish Rabbi Capers Funnye, son of her grandfathers sister. Robinson grew up in a bungalow on Euclid Avenue in Chicagos South Shore community area. Her parents rented an apartment on the second floor from her great-aunt. She was raised in what she describes as a home, with the mother at home. Her elementary school was down the street and they enjoyed playing games such as Monopoly, reading, and frequently saw extended family on both sides. She played piano, learning from her great-aunt who was a piano teacher, the Robinsons attended services at nearby South Shore United Methodist Church. They used to vacation in a cabin in White Cloud. She and her 21-month older brother, Craig, skipped the second grade and her father suffered from multiple sclerosis which had a profound emotional effect on her as she was growing up

Michelle Obama
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2013 official portrait
Michelle Obama
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Official portrait by Pete Souza of the Obama family in the Oval Office, 11 December 2011
Michelle Obama
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The Obamas attend a church service in Washington, D.C., January 2013
Michelle Obama
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The Obamas fist bump upon his winning the Democratic nomination.

22.
Robert A. Levy
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He is a Cato senior fellow and an author and pundit. Before becoming a lawyer, he was the founder and CEO of CDA Investment Technologies, Levy was born and grew up working class in the Petworth neighborhood in Washington, DC. His parents ran a hardware store. He attended college at American University, where he earned a Ph. D. in business in 1966. After graduating he moved to Silver Spring, MD and founded CDA Investment Technologies, CDA was a provider of financial information and software. The company became a success and grew to have offices in Rockville, MD, New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, Tokyo and it was particularly well known for its rankings of how mutual funds performed. Their quarterly release of rankings would prompt articles in The New York Times, Levy sold the company in 1986 to Dutch publishing firm Elsevier for an undisclosed amount. In 1987 Elsevier sold CDA to The Thomson Corporation for a profit, Levy stayed on as CEO through both sales, retiring from his position in 1991 to attend law school. In 1991 Levy retired from CDA Investment Technologies and entered George Mason University School of Law, after graduation he clerked first for Judge Royce C. Lamberth on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, in 1997 Levy became a Senior Fellow in Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute and an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University. Levy co-authored The Dirty Dozen, How Twelve Supreme Court Cases Radically Expanded Government, in 2004, Levy retired from his position at Georgetown and moved down to Naples, Florida. He remains a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute and he was named to the institutes board of directors in 2007, and became chairman in 2008. He also sits on the boards of the Institute for Justice, the Federalist Society, robert A. Levy Biography, Cato Institute Carefully Plotted Course Propels Gun Case to Top, New York Times Lawyer Who Wiped Out D. C

Robert A. Levy
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Robert A. Levy in 2007

23.
Cato Institute
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The Cato Institute is an American libertarian think tank headquartered in Washington, D. C. It was founded as the Charles Koch Foundation in 1974 by Ed Crane, Murray Rothbard, in July 1976, the name was changed to the Cato Institute. Cato was established to have a focus on advocacy, media exposure. According to the 2014 Global Go To Think Tank Index Report, Cato is number 16 in the Top Think Tanks Worldwide, Cato also topped the 2014 list of the budget-adjusted ranking of international development think tanks. The institute was founded in December 1974 in Wichita, Kansas as the Charles Koch Foundation, the other members of the first board of directors included co-founder Murray Rothbard, libertarian scholar Earl Ravenal, and businessmen Sam H. Husbands Jr. and David H. Padden. Cato relocated first to San Francisco, California in 1977, then to Washington, D. C. in 1981, the Institute moved to its current location on Massachusetts Avenue in 1993. Various Cato programs were ranked in a survey published by the University of Pennsylvania in 2012. The Cato Institute publishes numerous policy studies, briefing papers, periodicals, peer-reviewed academic journals include the Cato Journal and Regulation. Other periodicals include Catos Letter, Cato Supreme Court Review, Cato published Inquiry Magazine from 1977 to 1982 and Literature of Liberty from 1978 to 1979. S. Federal Government and recommendations for decreasing various programs, libertarianism. org is a website focused on the theory and practice of libertarianism. Cato Unbound, a publication that features a monthly open debate between four people. The conversation begins with one lead essay, followed by three response essays by separate people, after that, all four participants can write as many responses and counter-responses as they want for the duration of that month. PoliceMisconduct. net contains reports and stories from Catos National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, overlawyered is a law blog on the subject of tort reform run by author Walter Olson. HumanProgress. org is an interactive data web project that increases in prosperity driven by the free market. Social media sponsored by Cato includes Daily Podcasts, plus pages on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, speakers at Cato have included Federal Reserve Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, and International Monetary Fund Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato. In 2009 Czech Republic President Václav Klaus spoke at a conference, many Cato scholars advocate support for civil liberties, liberal immigration policies, drug liberalization, and the repeal of Dont Ask Dont Tell and laws restricting consensual sexual activity. The Cato Institute officially resists being labeled as part of the movement because conservative smacks of an unwillingness to change. In 2006, Markos Moulitsas of the Daily Kos proposed the term Libertarian Democrat to describe his particular liberal position, Cato has stated on its About Cato page, The Jeffersonian philosophy that animates Catos work has increasingly come to be called libertarianism or market liberalism

24.
John Podesta
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John David Podesta is a columnist and former chairman of the 2016 Hillary Clinton presidential campaign. He previously served as chief of staff to President Bill Clinton, additionally, he was a co-chairman of the Obama-Biden Transition Project. Podesta spent most of his years in Chicago, where he was born. His mother, Mary, was Greek-American, and his father, John David Podesta, Tony Podesta, a lobbyist, is his brother. Podestas father did not graduate high school, but encouraged Podesta to attend college. In 1967, Podesta graduated from Lane Tech High School in Chicago, in 1971, he graduated from Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, where he had served as a volunteer for the presidential candidacy of Eugene McCarthy. He received his J. D. from Georgetown University Law Center in 1976 and his political career began in 1972, when he worked for George McGoverns presidential campaign, which lost in 49 states. In 1988, he and his brother Tony co-founded Podesta Associates, Inc. a Washington, D. C. government relations, Podesta served as both an Assistant to the President and as Deputy Chief of Staff. In 1998 he became President Clintons Chief of Staff in the second Clinton Administration, Podesta encouraged Executive Order 12958 which led to efforts to declassify millions of pages from the U. S. diplomatic and national security history. In 2003, Podesta founded the Center for American Progress, a think tank in Washington, D. C. and served as its president. Podesta remained chairman of the board of directors for a time. On the Georgetown faculty, Podestas title is Distinguished Visitor from Practice, from 2002–14, Podesta served as a member of the Constitution Projects bipartisan Liberty and Security Committee. In 2008, he authored The Power of Progress, How Americas Progressives Can Save Our Economy, Our Climate, in 2009, he accompanied former President Bill Clinton to North Korea for negotiations securing the release of two American journalists imprisoned on espionage charges. He can be seen in widely circulated photographs of Clinton meeting with Kim Jong-il. Podesta opposes the use of classification, and in a 2004 speech at Princeton University condemned what he called the U. S. s excessive government secrecy. More than 800 million pages of documents were declassified as part of the program. Podesta is described as an advocate for government disclosure of UFO files. Podesta has supported petitions by some who believe UFOs are alien spacecraft to the government to release files related to the subject, Podesta wrote the forward for a book by Leslie Kean titled UFOs- Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On The Record

25.
Center for American Progress
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The Center for American Progress is a progressive public policy research and advocacy organization. According to CAP, the center is dedicated to improving the lives of all Americans, through bold, progressive ideas, as well as strong leadership, the Center presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D. C, the president and chief executive officer of CAP is Neera Tanden, who worked for the Obama and Clinton administrations and for Hillary Clinton’s campaigns. The first president and CEO was John Podesta, who has served as White House Chief of Staff to U. S. President Bill Clinton, Podesta remained with the organization as chairman of the board until he joined the Obama White House staff in December 2013. Tom Daschle is the current chairman, the Center for American Progress runs a campus outreach group, Generation Progress, and a sister advocacy organization, the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The Center for American Progress was created in 2003 as an alternative to think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation. Senator from North Carolina John Edwards, ThinkProgress is a blog edited by Judd Legum that provide a forum that advances progressive ideas and policies. It is an outlet of the Center for American Progress, Generation Progress was launched in February 2005 and is CAPs youth outreach arm. According to the organization, Generation Progress partners with over a million millennials, whereas CAP is a 501 nonprofit, CAP Action is a 501, allowing it to devote more funds to lobbying. In 2003, George Soros promised to support the organization by donating up to $3 million. CAP Action is headed by Neera Tanden, Science Progress was an internet publication about progressive science and technology policy. Science Progress was a project of the Center for American Progress and it began publication on 4 October 2007, the fiftieth anniversary of the launch of Sputnik 1. Content on the web site included news, in-depth essays, and text-, the Science Progress staff included Editor-In-Chief Jonathan D. Moreno. The Center for American Progress attracted controversy for email chains attacking two major faith groups--evangelicals and Catholics during the Wikileaks hack of 2011 emails, the email chains were between Communications Director Jennifer Palmieri, Clinton campaign chair John Podesta and John Halpin from the Center for American Progress. Podesta did not respond in the email thread, in one of these alleged emails, Many of the most powerful elements of the conservative movement are all Catholic from the SC and think tanks to the media and social groups. Its an amazing bastardization of the faith and they must be attracted to the systematic thought and severely backwards gender relations and must be totally unaware of Christian democracy. I imagine they think is the most socially acceptable politically conservative religion and their rich friends wouldnt understand if they became evangelicals. Palmieri was reportedly referring to Rupert Murdoch raising his children as Catholics, CAP was criticized by several Jewish organizations after some employees publicly used language that could be construed as anti-Israel or even anti-Semitic

26.
Julian Bond
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Horace Julian Bond was an American social activist and leader in the Civil Rights Movement, politician, professor and writer. While a student at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, during the early 1960s, Bond was elected to four terms in the Georgia House of Representatives and later to six terms in the Georgia State Senate, serving a combined twenty years in both legislative chambers. From 1998 to 2010, he was chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Bond was born at Hubbard Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, to parents Julia Agnes and Horace Mann Bond. His father was an educator who went on to serve as the president of Lincoln University and his mother, Julia, was a former librarian at Clark Atlanta University. At the time, the family resided on campus at Fort Valley State College, the house of the Bonds was a frequent stop for scholars, activists, and celebrities passing through, such as W. E. B. In 1945 his father accepted the position of president of Lincoln University—becoming its first African-American president—and the family moved North, in 1957, Bond graduated from George School, a private Quaker preparatory boarding school near Newtown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. On April 17,1960, Bond helped co-found the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Bond left Morehouse College in 1961 to work on civil rights in the South. From 1960 to 1963, he led student protests against segregation in public facilities and he returned in 1971 at age 31 to complete his Bachelor of Arts in English. With Morris Dees, Bond helped found the Southern Poverty Law Center and he served as its president from 1971 to 1979. Bond was an member of the Southern Poverty Law Center board of directors at time of his death in 2015. By ending the disfranchisement of blacks through voter registration, African Americans regained the ability to vote. Although he was undecided about his party affiliation, Bond ultimately ran and was elected as a Democrat. Johnson, who had signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law, on January 10,1966, Georgia state representatives voted 184–12 not to seat him, because he had publicly endorsed SNCCs policy regarding opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War. They disliked Bonds stated sympathy for persons who were unwilling to respond to a military draft, a three-judge panel on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia ruled in a 2–1 decision that the Georgia House had not violated any of Bonds constitutional rights. In 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 9–0 in the case of Bond v. Floyd that the Georgia House of Representatives had denied Bond his freedom of speech and was required to seat him. From 1967 to 1975, Bond was elected to four terms in the Georgia House, Callaway had led in the 1966 general election by some three thousand votes. The choice fell on state lawmakers under the Georgia Constitution of 1824, former Governor Ellis Arnall polled more than fifty thousand votes as a write-in candidate, a factor which led to the impasse. Bond would not support either Maddox or Callaway, although he was ordered to vote by lame duck Lieutenant Governor Peter Zack Geer, the 28-year-old Bond quickly declined the nod, citing the constitutional requirement that one must be at least 35 years of age to serve in that office

27.
Dan Choi
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Daniel Choi is an American former infantry officer in the United States Army who served in combat in the Iraq war during 2006-2007. On October 19,2010, Choi applied to rejoin the US Army, Choi is a native of Tustin in Orange County, California, the son of a Korean-American Baptist minister. He graduated from Tustin High School then attended the United States Military Academy at West Point, Choi was very active with extracurriculars during his high school years. He served as student body president, was on the varsity swim team, during his senior year, after watching Saving Private Ryan, he decided to attend West Point. Choi graduated from West Point in 2003 with degrees in Arabic, Choi served as an infantry officer in Iraq with the 10th Mountain Division in 2006 and 2007. In June 2008, he transferred from active duty Army to the New York Army National Guard, Choi served as an Army guardsman with the 1st Battalion, 69th Infantry, based in Manhattan. Choi received a letter following his coming out on The Rachel Maddow Show. In response, Choi penned a letter to U. S. President Barack Obama. In the letter, Choi challenged the morality and wisdom of Dont Ask, Dont Tell, as of February 2010, Choi was serving again in his Army National Guard unit, the discharge having not yet been finalized. On June 29,2010, Chois discharge was finalized, since Chois coming out,38 West Point alumni also came out and announced the formation of Knights Out, an organization of West Point alumni who support the rights of LGBT soldiers to serve openly. Choi was one of the members and is the spokesperson for the group. The organization offers to help their alma mater educate future Army leaders on the need to accept and honor the sacrifices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops. Choi has also spoken at numerous gay rights events, including a march in Los Angeles following the California Supreme Courts affirmation of Proposition 8. On May 27,2009, he addressed a demonstration of gay activists outside the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in addition, Choi spoke at the 2009 Pride Rally in New York City and served as a Grand Marshal alongside Knights Out in San Franciscos 2009 Gay Pride Parade. On July 16,2009, Choi was in Culver City, California, the documentary is the fourth episode in the In Their Boots series, with the episode focusing on the partners of LGBT soldiers deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. In the episode, Choi criticizes the U. S. militarys neglect of the partners of service members, in February 2010 Choi was selected to be a Grand Marshal of the 41st Annual New York LGBT Pride March by its producers, Heritage of Pride. At the event, Choi led the Pledge of Allegiance at the New York City Council Chambers, in March 2013, Outright Libertarians announced that Dan Choi was joining the GLBTQ caucus of the Libertarian Party as an honorary board member. In June 2013, Choi and numerous celebrities appeared in a video showing support for Chelsea Manning

28.
Dolores Huerta
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Dolores Clara Fernández Huerta is an American labor leader and civil rights activist who was the co-founder of the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Huerta has received awards for her community service and advocacy for workers, immigrants. Debs Foundation Outstanding American Award, the United States Presidential Eleanor Roosevelt Award for Human Rights, as a role model to many in the Latino community, Huerta is the subject of many corridos and murals. Born on April 10,1930, in the town of Dawson, New Mexico, Huerta was the daughter of Juan Fernández—a miner, field/farm worker, union activist. Huerta was the second child and only daughter, the couple divorced when Huerta was three years old. Chávez raised Huerta and her two brothers in the central California farm worker community of Stockton, California, Huertas mother was known for her kindness and compassion towards others and was active in community affairs, numerous civic organizations, and the church. She encouraged the cultural diversity that was a part of Huertas upbringing in Stockton. Alicia Chávez was a businesswoman who owned a restaurant and a 70-room hotel where she welcomed low-wage workers and this served as the inspiration for her caring and willingness to help farm workers later on in her life. In an interview Huerta stated that “The dominant person in my life is my mother and she was a very intelligent woman and a very gentle woman”. This prompted Huerta to think about civil rights and her mother’s generous actions during Dolores childhood provided the foundation for her own non-violent, strong spiritual stance. In the same interview she said “When we talk about spiritual forces and we know what fasting is, and that it is part of the culture. We know what relationships are, and we know what sacrifice is”, Huertas community activism began when she was a student at Stockton High School. Huerta was active in school clubs, and was a majorette. In school she remembered a teacher accusing her of stealing another student’s work and giving her an unfair grade, having lived life being marginalized because of her Hispanic origin, she grew up knowing that there were things in the society that needed to be changed. Huerta attended college at the University of the Pacifics Stockton College, after teaching grammar school, Huerta left her job and began her lifelong crusade to correct economic injustice, I couldnt tolerate seeing kids come to class hungry and needing shoes. I thought I could do more by organizing farm workers than by trying to teach their hungry children, due to her dedication and willingness to serve, Ross often delegated huge responsibilities to her. He knew she was capable of delivering the message and promoting its agenda. In 1962, she co-founded the National Farm Workers Association with César Chávez, in 1966, she negotiated a contract between the UFWOC and Schenley Wine Company, marking the first time that farm workers were able to effectively bargain with an agricultural enterprise

29.
Cleve Jones
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Cleve Jones is an American AIDS and LGBT rights activist. He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt which has become, at 54 tons, Jones was born in West Lafayette, Indiana, and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona. His mother was a Quaker, a faith she held at least in part to benefit her son in the era of the draft for the Vietnam war and he did not reveal his sexual orientation to his parents until he was 18. His career as an activist began in San Francisco during the turbulent 1970s when, as a newcomer to the city, Jones worked as a student intern in Milk’s office while studying political science at San Francisco State University. Jones went to work in the office of State Assemblyman Art Agnos. In 1983, when AIDS was still a new and largely underestimated threat, Jones conceived the idea of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at a candlelight memorial for Harvey Milk in 1985 and in 1987 created the first quilt panel in honor of his friend Marvin Feldman. The AIDS Memorial Quilt has grown to become the world’s largest community arts project, Jones ran for a position on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the November 3,1992 election. While in San Francisco, Jones took part in a documentary, Echoes of Yourself in the Mirror, about the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the film also looks at the impact HIV/AIDS is having in communities of color, and the young. Jones has been working with UNITE HERE, the hotel, restaurant and he is a driving force behind the Sleep With The Right People campaign, which aims to convince LGBT tourists to stay only in hotels that respect the rights of their workers. Another part of Joness work with UNITE HERE is making the movement more open to LGBT members. In the same interview, Jones also talked about the time when he became seriously ill and he described his present health as good. The interview was based on Joness book, When We Rise, My Life in the Movement, Jones is portrayed by actor Emile Hirsch in Milk, director Gus Van Sants 2008 biopic of Harvey Milk. Jones is prominently featured in And the Band Played On, Randy Shiltss best-selling 1987 work of non-fiction about the AIDS epidemic in the United States, Jones was also featured in the 1995 documentary film The Castro. Jones was one of the Official Grand Marshals of the 2009 NYC LGBT Pride March, produced by Heritage of Pride joining Dustin Lance Black, in August 2009, Jones was an official Grand Marshal of the Vancouver Pride Parade. Jones participated as an actor in the Los Angeles premiere of 8, Jones is portrayed by actors Austin P. McKenzie and Guy Pearce in the 2017 ABC television miniseries When We Rise, directed by Gus Van Sant. LGBT culture in San Francisco Jones, Cleve, when We Rise, My Life in the Movement, Hachette Books. ISBN9780316315432 Jones, Cleve, with Dawson, Jeff, stitching a Revolution, The Making of an Activist. The Mayor of Castro Street, The Life and Times of Harvey Milk, St. Martins Press

30.
Stuart Milk
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Stuart Milk is a global LGBT human rights activist and political speaker. The nephew of civil rights leader Harvey Milk, he is the co-founder of the Harvey Milk Foundation and he has engaged in domestic and international activism, including work with LGBT movements in Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Milk is frequently quoted in news and seen on broadcast television discussing issues of LGBT inclusion. He is also a writer and columnist for The Huffington Post. Milk has worked on public policy since the late 1980s in both the public and private sector, primarily on issues pertaining to youth and disadvantaged populations in the U. S. He has provided addresses at political conventions, including both the California Democratic Convention and Florida statewide conventions in 2009 and 2010, in addition to his role as Milk family spokesperson, he worked to share his uncles story at international, national and state levels. Milk was active in the 2012 U. S, the summit was supported by the European Union, the Italian Senate, the City of Milan and Equality Italia. As reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, the 1978 assassination of his uncle destroyed the door for Stuart Milk. At the 20-year memorial of Harvey Milks death, Stuart stated that decided to be vocally out right after his uncles murder, as a living and active memorial. Earlier that year, Uncle Harvey and I had a talk at a family gathering. I was just a teenager, but it stayed with me, when I think about Uncle Harvey, I think about, even as a small child, the kind of the richness and color of life that he brought to me. Harvey was the person who introduced me to Broadway, and Broadway musicals, Milk has been involved in public service since the late 1980s including directing employment assistance centers and youth enrichment programs. He told The New York Times that he sees his work in service, with youths. In 1999, Stuart Milk made available to the public several never before seen photos of his uncles early campaign for elected office and as well as personal family pictures. In 1985, Milk gave his first large public address as an out LGBT activist alongside The Times of Harvey Milk producer Richard Schmiechen at Oberlin College in Ohio. At the time Milk was working as a director for National Citizen Action. Stuart Milk has travelled to foreign nations advocating for human rights inclusive of the LGBT community while working collaboratively with other diminished and marginalized populations, Milk was involved with getting legislation signed creating an annual California State Day of Recognition named after his late uncle in 2009. His involvement was cited as a reason he received Equality Californias Champion Award that year, Harvey Milk Day activities are now held around the world every May 22—Milks birthday—and are facilitated annually by the Harvey Milk Foundation

31.
Hilary Rosen
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Hilary Rosen is an American communications and political consultant and pundit, and former head of the Recording Industry Association of America. She was a columnist for The Washington Post, became the first Washington editor-at-large and political director of The Huffington Post, and has provided commentary for CNN, CNBC. She worked for the RIAA for 16 years, including as chief officer from 1998 to 2003. Since 2010, she has been a partner and managing director at the public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker and she has been a registered lobbyist during her career, both at the RIAA and for the Human Rights Campaign. Rosen has been an advocate for LGBT rights since the early 1980s, Rosen was born to a Jewish family in West Orange, New Jersey in 1958. Her father worked as an agent and her mother became the citys first councilwoman. In high school, Rosen served as student council president and she earned her bachelors degree in international business from George Washington University in 1981. Her parents divorced while Rosen was at college, in 1979, Rosen began working as a legislative assistant in the Washington, D. C. office of Governor Brendan Byrne, who was a friend of Rosens mother. She also worked for Senator Bill Bradley early in her career, Rosen worked for the lobbying firm Liz Robbins Associates in the 1980s. In 1989, she and her colleague Jay Berman updated the Parental Advisory label, in 1992, she took a brief leave from the RIAA to serve as Senator Dianne Feinsteins transition director and set up the California Democratic Partys office in Washington, D. C. In 1995, Rosen supported artists rights when Bob Dole, then Senate Majority Leader, criticized Time Warner and she became the organizations president and chief operating officer in May 1996, leading the organization during a tumultuous time for the music industry. Rosen was a supporter of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Rosen was promoted to the role of executive officer in 1998. As the face of the RIAA, she was vilified by proponents of free file sharing, in 2002, she was promoted from president and CEO to chairwoman and CEO. The RIAA later sided with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, who led a group of entertainment companies who filed a lawsuit against Grokster, in MGM Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd. the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the entertainment-industry plaintiffs, a decision Rosen supported publicly. She also encouraged partnerships between the industry and online music businesses, and consulted on the launch of digital music services such as Apple Inc. s iTunes Store. She was included in The Hollywood Reporters list of the most powerful women in entertainment in 1998,2000,2002, in June 2003, after working for the organization for seventeen years, Rosen resigned to spend more time with her family. Following her resignation, she questioned the value of lawsuits against individual downloaders said she had attempted to push the industry to evolve

Hilary Rosen
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Rosen testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2000 on the future of digital music
Hilary Rosen
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Fire on Deep Water Horizon

32.
Judy Shepard
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She and her husband, Dennis, are co-founders of the Matthew Shepard Foundation, and advocates for LGBT rights. Judy and her husband, Dennis Shepard, have lived in Casper, Judy is the mother of two sons, Matthew Wayne Shepard and Logan Shepard. On October 6,1998, Judys older son Matthew was beaten and pistol whipped in Laramie, Matthew Shepard died six days later at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado on October 12,1998 at age 21. It was widely reported by media that it was due to him being gay. The incident became one of the cases of hate-crimes and was cited for passing hate-crime legislation. In response, Judy Shepard created the Matthew Shepard Foundation, the foundations purpose is to advance social justice, diversity awareness and education, and equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. She is the president of the Foundations Board of Directors. Judy and her husband Dennis were present at the introduction ceremony and that bill did not pass however, after then-President George W. Bush threatened to veto the bill if it passed. As of 2009, she is still president of the foundation. In May 2009, Shepard met with President Barack Obama, where he promised her he would pass the Matthew Shepard Act. On October 11,2009, she addressed a rally for LGBT rights in the United States Capitol, at the National Equality March, no one has the right to tell my son whether or not he can work anywhere. Whether or not he can live wherever he wants to live, in 2009, she authored the book The Meaning of Matthew, My Sons Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed about the incident and its repercussions. On October 22,2009, the United States Congress passed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, in 2009, Judy Shepard received the Black Tie Dinner Elizabeth Birch Equality Award. The award was presented to Ms. Shepard by Elizabeth Birch, herself, Shepard, Judy, The Meaning of Matthew, My Sons Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed, Hudson Street Press. ISBN 1-59463-057-7 List of civil rights leaders

33.
Republican Party (United States)
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The Republican Party, commonly referred to as the GOP, is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, the other being its historic rival, the Democratic Party. The party is named after republicanism, the dominant value during the American Revolution, there have been 19 Republican presidents, the most from any one party. The Republican Partys current ideology is American conservatism, which contrasts with the Democrats more progressive platform, further, its platform involves support for free market capitalism, free enterprise, fiscal conservatism, a strong national defense, deregulation, and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for economic policies, the Republican Party is socially conservative. As of 2017, the GOP is documented as being at its strongest position politically since 1928, in addition to holding the Presidency, the Republicans control the 115th United States Congress, having majorities in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a majority of governorships and state legislatures, the main cause was opposition to the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise by which slavery was kept out of Kansas. The Northern Republicans saw the expansion of slavery as a great evil, the first public meeting of the general anti-Nebraska movement where the name Republican was suggested for a new anti-slavery party was held on March 20,1854, in a schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin. The name was chosen to pay homage to Thomas Jeffersons Republican Party. The first official party convention was held on July 6,1854, in Jackson and it oversaw the preserving of the union, the end of slavery, and the provision of equal rights to all men in the American Civil War and Reconstruction, 1861–1877. The Republicans initial base was in the Northeast and the upper Midwest, with the realignment of parties and voters in the Third Party System, the strong run of John C. Fremont in the 1856 United States presidential election demonstrated it dominated most northern states, early Republican ideology was reflected in the 1856 slogan free labor, free land, free men, which had been coined by Salmon P. Chase, a Senator from Ohio. Free labor referred to the Republican opposition to labor and belief in independent artisans. Free land referred to Republican opposition to the system whereby slaveowners could buy up all the good farm land. The Party strove to contain the expansion of slavery, which would cause the collapse of the slave power, Lincoln, representing the fast-growing western states, won the Republican nomination in 1860 and subsequently won the presidency. The party took on the mission of preserving the Union, and destroying slavery during the American Civil War, in the election of 1864, it united with War Democrats to nominate Lincoln on the National Union Party ticket. The partys success created factionalism within the party in the 1870s and those who felt that Reconstruction had been accomplished and was continued mostly to promote the large-scale corruption tolerated by President Ulysses S. Grant ran Horace Greeley for the presidency. The Stalwarts defended Grant and the system, the Half-Breeds led by Chester A. Arthur pushed for reform of the civil service in 1883. The Republicans supported the pietistic Protestants who demanded Prohibition, nevertheless, by 1890 the Republicans had agreed to the Sherman Antitrust Act and the Interstate Commerce Commission in response to complaints from owners of small businesses and farmers

Republican Party (United States)
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Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican U.S. President (1861–1865).
Republican Party (United States)
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Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States (1901–1909)
Republican Party (United States)
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Dwight Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States (1953–1961)
Republican Party (United States)
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Richard Nixon, 37th President of the United States (1969–1974)

34.
George W. Bush
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George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009. He was also the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000 and he is the eldest son of Barbara and George H. W. Bush. After graduating from Yale University in 1968 and Harvard Business School in 1975, Bush married Laura Welch in 1977 and ran unsuccessfully for the House of Representatives shortly thereafter. He later co-owned the Texas Rangers baseball team before defeating Ann Richards in the 1994 Texas gubernatorial election and he is the second president to assume the nations highest office after his father, following the lead of John Quincy Adams. He is also a brother of Jeb Bush, a former Governor of Florida who was a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 presidential election, the September 11 terrorist attacks occurred eight months into Bushs first term as president. Bush responded with what became known as the Bush Doctrine, launching a War on Terror, a military campaign that included the war in Afghanistan in 2001. He also promoted policies on the economy, health care, education, Social Security reform and his tenure included national debates on immigration, Social Security, electronic surveillance, and torture. In the 2004 Presidential race, Bush defeated Democratic Senator John Kerry in another close election. After his re-election, Bush received increasingly heated criticism from across the spectrum for his handling of the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina. Amid this criticism, the Democratic Party regained control of Congress in the 2006 elections, Bush left office in 2009, returning to Texas where he purchased a home in Crawford. He wrote a memoir, Decision Points and his presidential library was opened in 2013. His presidency has been ranked among the worst in historians polls published in the late 2000s and 2010s. George Walker Bush was born on July 6,1946, at Grace-New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, as the first child of George Herbert Walker Bush and his wife, the former Barbara Pierce. He was raised in Midland and Houston, Texas, with four siblings, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, another younger sister, Robin, died from leukemia at the age of three in 1953. His grandfather, Prescott Bush, was a U. S and his father, George H. W. Bush, was Ronald Reagans Vice President from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st U. S. President from 1989 to 1993. Bush has English and some German ancestry, along with more distant Dutch, Welsh, Irish, French, Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas, until the family moved to Houston after he had completed seventh grade. He then spent two years at The Kinkaid School, a school in Houston. Bush attended high school at Phillips Academy, a school in Andover, Massachusetts

George W. Bush
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George W. Bush
George W. Bush
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Lt. George W. Bush while in the Texas Air National Guard
George W. Bush
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George W. Bush with his father outside the White House, April 29, 1992
George W. Bush
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Governor Bush (right) with father, former president George H. W. Bush and wife, Laura, in 1997

35.
Office of Legal Council
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The Office of Legal Counsel is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney Generals position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies. The Office of Legal Counsel was created in 1934 by an act of US Congress and it was first headed by an assistant solicitor general. In 1951, Attorney General J. Howard McGrath made it a division led by an assistant attorney and this name was changed to Office of Legal Counsel in an administrative order by Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr. issued April 3,1953. Such requests typically deal with issues of particular complexity and importance or about which two or more agencies are in disagreement. The Office also is responsible for providing advice to the executive branch on all constitutional questions. The decisions of the Office are binding on all executive agencies, all executive orders and proclamations proposed to be issued by the President are reviewed by the OLC for form and legality, as are various other matters that require the Presidents formal approval. In addition to serving as, in effect, outside counsel for the agencies of the executive branch. It reviews all proposed orders of the Attorney General and all regulations requiring the Attorney Generals approval, newsweek characterized the OLC as the most important government office youve never heard of. Among its bosses -- before they went on the Supreme Court -- were William Rehnquist, within the executive branch, including the Pentagon and Central Intelligence Agency, the OLC acts as a kind of mini Supreme Court. Its carefully worded opinions are regarded as binding precedent -- final say on what the president and all his agencies can, however, this binding effect has never been tested in a U. S. court. During the entirety of President George W. Bushs second term and he was first officially nominated on June 23,2005, and then repeatedly re-nominated because of Senate inaction. In January 2009, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Dawn Johnsen to the position of Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel and she had previously held that position, in an acting capacity, during the Clinton administration. Her nomination was withdrawn on April 9,2010, the OLCs written opinions have historically been considered binding on the executive branch. Office of Legal Counsel Department of Justices Official OLC Homepage, the Missing Memos Special Project ProPublicas tracking table of both released and yet to be released OLC memos. Office of Legal Counsel Memos The ACLUs page dealing with the OLC memos,4 Torture Memos Released 16Apr2009 in response to FOIA suit by ACLU. Senate Armed Forces Committee Report on Torture Released 22Apr2009

36.
United States Department of Justice
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The department was formed in 1870 during the Ulysses S. Grant administration. In its early years, the DOJ vigorously prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members, the Department of Justice administers several federal law enforcement agencies including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The department has responsibility to investigate instances of fraud, to represent the United States in legal matters such as in the Supreme Court. The department also has responsibilities to review actions of law enforcement conduct by the Violent Crime Control. The Department is headed by the United States Attorney General, who is nominated by the President, the current Attorney General is Jeff Sessions. The U. S. Attorney General was initially a one-person and it was established by the Judiciary Act of 1789, but this grew with the bureaucracy. At one time the Attorney General gave legal advice to the U. S. Congress as well as the President, until March 3,1853, the salary of the Attorney General was set by statute at less than the amount paid to other Cabinet members. Early Attorneys General supplemented their salary by engaging in private practice of law. Following unsuccessful efforts to put the Attorney Generals Office on a footing, in 1869. On February 19,1868, Lawrence introduced a bill in Congress to create the Department of Justice, President Ulysses S. Grant then signed the bill into law on June 22,1870. The Department of Justice officially began operations on July 1,1870, just prior to the Civil War, in February 1861, the Confederate States of America established a Department of Justice. Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman as Attorney General and Benjamin H. Bristow as Americas first Solicitor General, both Akerman and Bristow used the Department of Justice to vigorously prosecute Ku Klux Klan members in the early 1870s. In the first few years of Grants first term in there were 1000 indictments against Klan members with over 550 convictions from the Department of Justice. The result was a decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and told a friend that no one was better or stronger then Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists. Akermans successor, George H. Williams, in December 1871, the law did create a new office, that of Solicitor General, to supervise and conduct government litigation in the Supreme Court of the United States. In 1884, control of federal prisons was transferred to the new department, new facilities were built, including the penitentiary at Leavenworth in 1895, and a facility for women located in West Virginia, at Alderson was established in 1924. The U. S. Department of Justice building was completed in 1935 from a design by Milton Bennett Medary, upon Medarys death in 1929, the other partners of his Philadelphia firm Zantzinger, Borie and Medary took over the project

United States Department of Justice
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The Robert F. Kennedy Building in August 2006. The building serves as the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Justice.
United States Department of Justice
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Seal of the United States Department of Justice

37.
Ronald Reagan
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Ronald Wilson Reagan was an American politician and actor who was the 40th President of the United States, from 1981 to 1989. Before his presidency, he was the 33rd Governor of California, from 1967 to 1975, after a career as a Hollywood actor and union leader. Raised in a family in small towns of northern Illinois, Reagan graduated from Eureka College in 1932. After moving to Hollywood in 1937, he became an actor, Reagan was twice elected President of the Screen Actors Guild, the labor union for actors, where he worked to root out Communist influence. In the 1950s, he moved into television and was a speaker at General Electric factories. Having been a lifelong Democrat, his views changed and he became a conservative and in 1962 switched to the Republican Party. In 1964, Reagans speech, A Time for Choosing, in support of Barry Goldwaters foundering presidential campaign, Building a network of supporters, he was elected Governor of California in 1966. Entering the presidency in 1981, Reagan implemented sweeping new political, in his first term he survived an assassination attempt, spurred the War on Drugs, and fought public sector labor. During his re-election bid, Reagan campaigned on the notion that it was Morning in America, foreign affairs dominated his second term, including ending of the Cold War, the bombing of Libya, and the Iran–Contra affair. Publicly describing the Soviet Union as an empire, and during his famous speech at the Brandenburg Gate. Jack, a salesman and storyteller, was the grandson of Irish Catholic immigrants from County Tipperary, Reagan had one older brother, John Neil Reagan, who became an advertising executive. As a boy, Reagans father nicknamed his son Dutch, due to his fat little Dutchman-like appearance and Dutchboy haircut, Reagans family briefly lived in several towns and cities in Illinois, including Monmouth, Galesburg, and Chicago. In 1919, they returned to Tampico and lived above the H. C, Pitney Variety Store until finally settling in Dixon. After his election as president, residing in the upstairs White House private quarters, for the time, Reagan was unusual in his opposition to racial discrimination, and recalled a time in Dixon when the local inn would not allow black people to stay there. Reagan brought them back to his house, where his mother invited them to stay the night and have breakfast the next morning, after the closure of the Pitney Store in late 1920 and the familys move to Dixon, the midwestern small universe had a lasting impression on Reagan. Reagan attended Dixon High School, where he developed interests in acting, sports and his first job was as a lifeguard at the Rock River in Lowell Park in 1927. Over a six-year period, Reagan reportedly performed 77 rescues as a lifeguard and he attended Eureka College, a Disciples-oriented liberal arts school, where he became a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, a cheerleader, and studied economics and sociology. While involved, the Miller Center of Public Affairs described him as an indifferent student and he majored in economics and sociology, and graduated with a C grade

38.
Democratic Party (United States)
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The Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The Democrats dominant worldview was once socially conservative and fiscally classical liberalism, while, especially in the rural South, since Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Deal coalition in the 1930s, the Democratic Party has also promoted a social-liberal platform, supporting social justice. Today, the House Democratic caucus is composed mostly of progressives and centrists, the partys philosophy of modern liberalism advocates social and economic equality, along with the welfare state. It seeks to provide government intervention and regulation in the economy, the party has united with smaller left-wing regional parties throughout the country, such as the Farmer–Labor Party in Minnesota and the Nonpartisan League in North Dakota. Well into the 20th century, the party had conservative pro-business, the New Deal Coalition of 1932–1964 attracted strong support from voters of recent European extraction—many of whom were Catholics based in the cities. After Franklin D. Roosevelts New Deal of the 1930s, the pro-business wing withered outside the South, after the racial turmoil of the 1960s, most southern whites and many northern Catholics moved into the Republican Party at the presidential level. The once-powerful labor union element became smaller and less supportive after the 1970s, white Evangelicals and Southerners became heavily Republican at the state and local level in the 1990s. However, African Americans became a major Democratic element after 1964, after 2000, Hispanic and Latino Americans, Asian Americans, the LGBT community, single women and professional women moved towards the party as well. The Northeast and the West Coast became Democratic strongholds by 1990 after the Republicans stopped appealing to socially liberal voters there, overall, the Democratic Party has retained a membership lead over its major rival the Republican Party. The most recent was the 44th president Barack Obama, who held the office from 2009 to 2017, in the 115th Congress, following the 2016 elections, Democrats are the opposition party, holding a minority of seats in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The party also holds a minority of governorships, and state legislatures, though they do control the mayoralty of cities such as New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, and Washington, D. C. The Democratic Party traces its origins to the inspiration of the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and that party also inspired the Whigs and modern Republicans. Organizationally, the modern Democratic Party truly arose in the 1830s, since the nomination of William Jennings Bryan in 1896, the party has generally positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party on economic issues. They have been liberal on civil rights issues since 1948. On foreign policy both parties changed position several times and that party, the Democratic-Republican Party, came to power in the election of 1800. After the War of 1812 the Federalists virtually disappeared and the national political party left was the Democratic-Republicans. The Democratic-Republican party still had its own factions, however. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828, Jacksonians believed the peoples will had finally prevailed, through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president

39.
Al Gore
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Albert Arnold Al Gore Jr. is an American politician and environmentalist who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He was Clintons running mate in their campaign in 1992. At the end of Clintons second term, Gore was picked as the Democratic nominee for the 2000 presidential election, after leaving office, Gore remained prominent as an author and environmental activist, whose work in climate change activism earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Gore was an official for 24 years. He was a Congressman from Tennessee and from 1985 to 1993 served as one of the states Senators and he served as Vice President during the Clinton administration from 1993 to 2001. In the 2000 presidential election, in what was one of the closest presidential races in history, Gore won the popular vote but lost in the Electoral College to Republican George W. Bush. A controversial election dispute over a vote recount in Florida was settled by the U. S. Supreme Court, and a senior adviser to Google. Gore is also a partner in the capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. He has served as a professor at Middle Tennessee State University, Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Fisk University. He served on the Board of Directors of World Resources Institute, Gore was also the subject of the Academy Award-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth in 2006. In 2007, he was named a runner-up for Times 2007 Person of the Year, Gore was born in Washington, D. C. the second of two children of Albert Gore Sr. a U. S. Representative who later served for 18 years as U. S, Senator from Tennessee, and Pauline Gore, one of the first women to graduate from Vanderbilt University Law School. Gore is partly descended from Scots-Irish immigrants who first settled in Virginia in the mid-17th-century and his older sister Nancy LaFon Gore, who was born in 1938, died of lung cancer in 1984. During the school year he lived with his family in The Fairfax Hotel in the Embassy Row section in Washington D. C, during the summer months, he worked on the family farm in Carthage, Tennessee, where the Gores grew tobacco and hay and raised cattle. Gore attended St. Albans School, an independent college preparatory day and boarding school for boys in Washington, D. C. from 1956 to 1965, a prestigious feeder school for the Ivy League. He was the captain of the team, threw discus for the track and field team, and participated in basketball, art. He graduated 25th in his class of 51, applied to one college, Harvard. Gore met Mary Elizabeth Tipper Aitcheson from the nearby St. Agnes School at his St. Albans senior prom in 1965

Al Gore
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Gore in 1994
Al Gore
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Al and Tipper Gore's wedding day, May 19, 1970 at the Washington National Cathedral
Al Gore
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Gore during his congressional years
Al Gore
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The Clintons and the Gores, 1993

40.
Florida election recount
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That in turn gave Bush a majority of votes in the Electoral College and victory in the presidential election. Gore phoned Bush the night of the election to concede, then retracted his concession after learning how close the Florida count was, Bush led the election-night vote count in Florida by 1,784 votes. The small margin produced an automatic recount under Florida state law, the machine recount occurred the day after the election and reduced that margin to just over 900 votes. Once it became clear that Florida would decide the presidential election, the Florida election was closely scrutinized after Election Day. Due to the margin of the original vote count, Florida Election Code 102.141 mandated a statewide machine recount. Florida state law at the time allowed the candidate to request a recount by protesting the results of at least three precincts. The county canvassing board was then to whether to do a recount, as well as the method of the recount. If the board discovered an error that in its judgment could affect the outcome of the election and this statutory process primarily accommodated recounts for local elections. Once the closeness of the election in Florida was clear, both the Bush and Gore campaigns organized themselves for the legal process. On November 11, the Bush campaign joined a group of Florida voters in suing in federal court for a preemptive injunction to stop all manual recounting of votes in Florida. The Gore campaign, as allowed by Florida statute, requested that disputed ballots in four counties be counted by hand, Florida statutes also required that all counties certify and report their returns, including any recounts, by 5,00 p. m. on November 14. At the same time, controversy ensued the discovery of irregularities that had occurred in the voting process in several counties. Among these was the Palm Beach butterfly ballot, which resulted in a high number of votes for Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan. Conservatives commented that the ballot was successfully used in the 1996 election, in fact. Democrats claimed that many of these were not felons and should have been eligible to vote under Florida law, unlike the much-discussed Palm Beach County butterfly ballot, the Duval County ballot spread choices for president over two non-facing pages. Alternately, Republicans charged that Democrats had registered non-citizens to vote, fought to exclude overseas military ballots, on the other hand, he said, Democrats talked like referees with a fear of pushing too hard, not wanting to be seen as sore losers. While Democrats did make their way down to Florida, there was nothing like the certainty or the passion that ignited Republicans, for those with memories going back four decades, all this was no accident. It was instead a painful reminder of the days when the battle for the ballot was, literally, at an NAACP-sponsored hearing in Miami four days after the election, prospective voters told of police cars blocking the way to the polls, of voters harassed by election workers

41.
Newsweek
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Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine founded in 1933. It was published in four English language editions and 12 global editions written in the language of the circulation region, between 2008 and 2012, Newsweek underwent internal and external contractions designed to shift the magazines focus and audience while improving its finances. Instead, losses accelerated, revenue dropped 38 percent from 2007 to 2009, in November 2010, Newsweek merged with the news and opinion website The Daily Beast, forming The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, after negotiations between the owners of the two publications. Tina Brown, The Daily Beasts editor-in-chief, served as the editor of both publications, Newsweek was jointly owned by the estate of the late Harman and the diversified American media and Internet company IAC. Newsweek ceased print publication with the December 31,2012, issue and transitioned to an all-digital format, IBT Media relaunched a print edition of Newsweek on March 7,2014. In 2003, worldwide circulation was more than 4 million, including 2.7 million in the U. S, Newsweek publishes editions in Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish, Rioplatense Spanish, Arabic, and Turkish, as well as an English language Newsweek International. Russian Newsweek, published since 2004, was shut in October 2010, the Bulletin incorporated an international news section from Newsweek. Based in New York City, the magazine claimed 22 bureaus in 2011, New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago/Detroit, Dallas, Miami, Washington, D. C. Boston and San Francisco, and others overseas in London, Paris, Berlin, Moscow, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Beijing, South Asia, Cape Town, Mexico City and Buenos Aires. News-Week was launched in 1933 by Thomas J. C. Martyn and he obtained financial backing from a group of U. S. stockholders which included Ward Cheney, of the Cheney silk family, John Hay Whitney, and Paul Mellon, son of Andrew W. Mellon. Paul Mellons ownership in Newsweek apparently represented the first attempt of the Mellon family to function journalistically on a national scale, the group of original owners invested around $2.5 million. Other large stockholders prior to 1946 were public utilities investment banker Stanley Childs, journalist Samuel T. Williamson served as the first editor-in-chief of Newsweek. The first issue of the magazine was dated 17 February 1933, seven photographs from the weeks news were printed on the first issues cover. In 1937 News-Week merged with the weekly journal Today, which had founded in 1932 by future New York Governor and diplomat W. Averell Harriman. In 1937 Malcolm Muir took over as president and editor-in-chief and he changed the name to Newsweek, emphasized interpretive stories, introduced signed columns, and launched international editions. Over time the magazine developed a spectrum of material, from breaking stories and analysis to reviews. The magazine was purchased by The Washington Post Company in 1961, osborn Elliott was named editor of Newsweek in 1961 and became the editor in chief in 1969. The women won, and Newsweek agreed to allow women to be reporters, edward Kosner became editor from 1975 to 1979 after directing the magazine’s extensive coverage of the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974

Newsweek
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Cover of the first issue of News-Week magazine
Newsweek
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January 16, 1939 cover featuring Felix Frankfurter
Newsweek
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The first issue released after the magazine switched to an opinion and commentary format.
Newsweek
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The cover of Newsweek's final print issue under The Newsweek Daily Beast Company ownership.

42.
The New York Times
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The New York Times is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18,1851, by The New York Times Company. The New York Times has won 119 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other newspaper, the papers print version in 2013 had the second-largest circulation, behind The Wall Street Journal, and the largest circulation among the metropolitan newspapers in the US. The New York Times is ranked 18th in the world by circulation, following industry trends, its weekday circulation had fallen in 2009 to fewer than one million. Nicknamed The Gray Lady, The New York Times has long been regarded within the industry as a newspaper of record. The New York Times international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the New York Times International Edition, the papers motto, All the News Thats Fit to Print, appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page. On Sunday, The New York Times is supplemented by the Sunday Review, The New York Times Book Review, The New York Times Magazine and T, some other early investors of the company were Edwin B. Morgan and Edward B. We do not believe that everything in Society is either right or exactly wrong, —what is good we desire to preserve and improve, —what is evil, to exterminate. In 1852, the started a western division, The Times of California that arrived whenever a mail boat got to California. However, when local California newspapers came into prominence, the effort failed, the newspaper shortened its name to The New-York Times in 1857. It dropped the hyphen in the city name in the 1890s, One of the earliest public controversies it was involved with was the Mortara Affair, the subject of twenty editorials it published alone. At Newspaper Row, across from City Hall, Henry Raymond, owner and editor of The New York Times, averted the rioters with Gatling guns, in 1869, Raymond died, and George Jones took over as publisher. Tweed offered The New York Times five million dollars to not publish the story, in the 1880s, The New York Times transitioned gradually from editorially supporting Republican Party candidates to becoming more politically independent and analytical. In 1884, the paper supported Democrat Grover Cleveland in his first presidential campaign, while this move cost The New York Times readership among its more progressive and Republican readers, the paper eventually regained most of its lost ground within a few years. However, the newspaper was financially crippled by the Panic of 1893, the paper slowly acquired a reputation for even-handedness and accurate modern reporting, especially by the 1890s under the guidance of Ochs. Under Ochs guidance, continuing and expanding upon the Henry Raymond tradition, The New York Times achieved international scope, circulation, in 1910, the first air delivery of The New York Times to Philadelphia began. The New York Times first trans-Atlantic delivery by air to London occurred in 1919 by dirigible, airplane Edition was sent by plane to Chicago so it could be in the hands of Republican convention delegates by evening. In the 1940s, the extended its breadth and reach. The crossword began appearing regularly in 1942, and the section in 1946

The New York Times
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Cover of The New York Times (November 15, 2012), with the headline story reporting on Operation Pillar of Defense.
The New York Times
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First published issue of New-York Daily Times, on September 18, 1851.
The New York Times
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The Times Square Building, The New York Times ‍ '​ publishing headquarters, 1913–2007
The New York Times
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The New York Times newsroom, 1942

43.
Freedom to Marry
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Freedom to Marry was the national bipartisan organization dedicated to winning marriage for same-sex couples in the United States. Freedom to Marry was founded in New York City in 2003 by Evan Wolfson, Wolfson served as president of the organization through the June 2015 victory at the Supreme Court, until the organization’s official closing in February 2016. Freedom to Marry drove the national strategy - what Freedom to Marry called the “Roadmap to Victory” - that led to the nationwide victory, Wolfson went on to serve full-time as the Marriage Director of Lambda Legal throughout the 1990s. He worked as co-counsel in Hawaii’s landmark Baehr case, which launched the ongoing international freedom to marry movement, the Hawaii case foreshadowed the pattern ahead, a legal breakthrough followed by political defeat, because of insufficient progress in changing hearts and minds. When, in 2000, Wolfson was approached by leaders of the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund, the campaign was officially launched in 2003, the birth of Freedom to Marry. S. Supreme Court, brought national resolution to the cause, but a smart, strategic campaign was integral to creating the climate necessary to get to that point and to avoid seeing gains snatched away. As in Hawaii, litigation was central – but it wasn’t enough, Wolfson called for the creation of a campaign that reflected what he called the “4 multi’s”, it would be multi-year, multi-state, multi-partner, and multi-methodology. The playbook shifted from a focus on the rights and benefits that come with marriage towards values-based frames of love, commitment, freedom, family. Through an aggressive and sophisticated media strategy, Freedom to Marry’s “Press Room” drove the national narrative around marriage, Freedom to Marry funded, directed, and created ads showcasing unexpected surrogates and stories of Americans’ journeys to supporting marriage. Freedom to Marry launched its Digital Action Center to leverage the national organization’s successful online work, in effect, Freedom to Marry was the digital “back end” of virtually all the key state campaigns in the last several years of the push. Freedom to Marry won numerous honors for its use of video. Why Marriage Matters was Freedom to Marry’s national public education campaign, in March 2011, Freedom to Marry launched an open letter calling on Barack Obama to support marriage for same-sex couples. Over 122,000 people signed their names to the letter, including celebrities, civic leaders. The campaign ended on May 9,2012, when President Obama became the first sitting president of the United States to say he supports marriage for same-sex couples. On May 9,2012, President Obama became the first sitting president of the United States to announce his support of the freedom to marry, on July 29, the Democratic Party Platform Drafting Committee included a freedom to marry plank in the draft of the platform. In January 2012, Freedom to Marry launched the Mayors for the Freedom to Marry campaign, over 500 mayors from nearly all 50 states had joined the campaign by the time marriage was won in 2015. As the largest funder of the movement, Freedom to Marry played a pivotal role in attracting broad foundation. For example, in March 2012, Freedom to Marry launched the Win More States Fund, the 2012 states included New Hampshire, Maine, Washington, Minnesota, New Jersey, and later Maryland

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Freedom to Marry
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Freedom to Marry in 2006

44.
Evan Wolfson
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Evan Wolfson is an attorney and gay rights advocate. He is the founder and president of Freedom to Marry, a group favoring same-sex marriage in the United States and he was listed as one of Time magazines 100 Most Influential People in the World. He has taught as a professor at Columbia Law School, Rutgers Law School. Wolfson was born in Brooklyn, New York and grew up in Pittsburgh and he graduated from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1974 and Yale College in 1978. At Yale, he was a resident of Silliman College, a history major, after graduation he served in the Peace Corps in Togo, in western Africa. He returned and entered Harvard Law School, where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1983, Wolfson wrote his 1983 Harvard Law thesis on same-sex marriage, long before the question gained national prominence. On October 6,2010, he returned to the Yale Political Union to debate same-sex marriage against opponent Maggie Gallagher, there, he wrote a Supreme Court amicus brief that helped win a nationwide ban on race discrimination in jury selection. Wolfson also wrote a brief to New Yorks highest court, the Court of Appeals, following the District Attorney’s Office, Wolfson served as Associate Counsel to Lawrence Walsh in the Office of Independent Counsel. In 1992, he served on the New York State Task Force on Sexual Harassment, from 1989 until 2001 Wolfson worked full-time at Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, a gay rights advocacy non-profit. He directed their Marriage Project and coordinated the National Freedom to Marry Coalition, Wolfson called the unions a wonderful step forward, but not enough. The Court ruled 5-4 against Dale, but Wolfson, said, Even before we change the policy, on April 30,2001, Wolfson left Lambda to form Freedom to Marry with a very generous grant from the Evelyn & Walter Haas Jr. Fund. Wolfson described the breadth of his vision for the new organization, I want gay kids to grow up believing that they can get married, that they can join the Scouts, that they can choose the life they want to live. Lambda executive director Kevin Cathcart said that twelve years Wolfson had personified Lambdas passion and vision for equality. In 2003 Time Magazine described him as symbolic of the gay rights movement, in his book Why Marriage Matters, Wolfson calls marriage a relationship of emotional and financial interdependence between two people who make a public commitment. In 2004 Time included Wolfson on its list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Wolfson said of the Washington Supreme Courts 2006 decision ruling same-sex marriage unconstitutional, It was a splintered court. Some critics such as BeyondMarriage. org assert Wolfson and others work is too focused on a limited marriage agenda. In a New York Times review of Why Marriage Matters, author William Saletan states what he sees as flaws in Wolfsons reasoning. Wolfson does not favor the civil union or domestic partnership approaches, because semantic differences create a stigma of exclusion and deny gay couples social, Wolfson and his husband Cheng He, a change-management consultant with a Ph. D. in molecular biology, reside in New York City

45.
Paul Singer (businessman)
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Paul Elliott Singer is an American hedge fund manager, activist investor, and philanthropist. His hedge fund, Elliott Management Corporation —specializes in distressed debt acquisitions, Singer is also the founder and CEO of NML Capital Limited, a Cayman Islands-based offshore unit of Elliott Management Corporation. In 2016, Forbes rated Singers net worth as $2.2 billion, Singers philanthropic activities include financial support for LGBTQ rights, —since his son came out as gay in 1998. His political activities include funding the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research and he has written against raising taxes for the 1%, Fortune magazine described him as one of the smartest and toughest money managers in the hedge fund industry. A number of sources have branded him a vulture capitalist, largely on account of his role at EMC, which has called a vulture fund. ”Paul Elliott Singer was born in 1944. He obtained his B. S. in psychology from the University of Rochester in 1966, in 1974, Singer went to work as an attorney in the real estate division of the investment bank Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. In 1977, with a convertible arbitrage winning formula, Singer left law to create his own investment company and he founded the hedge fund Elliott Associates L. P. with USD $1.3 million in seed capital from various friends and family members. According to The Telegraph in 2011, Elliott is “one of the oldest hedge funds in Wall Street, Singer is also the founder and CEO of NML Capital Limited, a Cayman Islands-based offshore unit of Elliott Management Corporation. The Financial Times writes that Elliotts principal investment strategy involved buying loans and bonds owed by companies in trouble, in 1996, Elliott bought defaulted Peruvian debt for $11.4 million. Elliott won a $58 million judgement when the ruling was overturned in 2000, at the same time, Elliotts representative, Jaime Pinto, had been formerly employed by the Peruvian Ministry of Economy and Finance and had contact with senior officials. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Peruvian government paid Elliott $56 million to settle the case, in the 1990s, the Kensington International division of EMC purchased US $30 million of Congolese sovereign debt. Kensington subsequently spent years trying to be paid in full through the courts, in 2007 the president of the Republic of Congo Denis Sassou-Nguesso accused Singer of undermining a United Nations backed effort to lift developing nations out of debt. Our disputes have always been with sovereigns who can pay but refuse to do so, the UK High Court ruled that Kensington was owed $100m after Kensington sued for $400 million. In 2008, Kensington and the Republic of Congo settled for an undisclosed amount, Elliott had 14. 7% average annual returns between 1977 and 2008, compared with 10. 8% for the S&P500 stock index as a whole. According to Fortune, Elliott has been involved “in most of the big post- restructurings, including Chrysler, ultimately, the US Treasury paid Elliott Management $12.9 billion in cash and subsidies from the US Treasurys auto bailout fund. By 2011, Elliott was active on the boards of such as National Express. In December 2011, Elliott Associates sued Vietnam’s state-owned shipbuilder Vinashin in the UK for defaulting the year before on a US $600 million syndicated loan. Forbes noted in December 2012, that Elliott Management had offered to purchase the software firm Compuware after having accumulated 8% of the companys stock, Elliott expressed the view that Compuware had great promise but had been under-performing under its current management

46.
Peter Thiel
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Peter Andreas Thiel is an American businessman, philanthropist, political activist, and author. Thiel was born in Frankfurt, and holds German citizenship and he moved with his family to the United States as an infant, and spent a portion of his upbringing in Africa before returning to the U. S. and attending San Mateo High School. He studied philosophy at Stanford University, graduating with a B. A. in 1989 and he then went on to the Stanford Law School, and received his J. D. in 1992. After graduation, he worked as a clerk for Judge James Larry Edmondson, a securities lawyer for Sullivan & Cromwell. Secretary of Education William Bennett and as a trader at Credit Suisse prior to founding Thiel Capital in 1996. He then co-founded PayPal in 1999, and served as executive officer until its sale to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion. After eBays acquisition of PayPal, he founded Clarium Capital, a macro hedge fund. He launched Palantir Technologies, a software company, in 2004. His Founders Fund, a venture firm, was launched in 2005 along with PayPal partners Ken Howery. Earlier, Thiel became Facebooks first outside investor when he acquired a 10. 2% stake for $500,000 in August 2004 and he sold the majority of his shares in Facebook for over $1 billion in 2012, but remains on the board of directors. Thiel became a New Zealand citizen in 2011 and owns a 193 hectare estate near Lake Wanaka, in January 2017 questions were raised in the media about the decision to grant him New Zealand citizenship. When he applied, he stated he had no intention of living in New Zealand, Thiel is involved with a variety of philanthropic and political pursuits. Through the Thiel Foundation, he governs the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship, a founder of The Stanford Review, he is a conservative libertarian who is critical of excessive government spending, high debt levels, and foreign wars. He has donated to political figures, and provided financial support to Hulk Hogan in Bollea v. Gawker. In November 2016, he was named to the committee of President-elect Donald Trumps transition team. Peter Andreas Thiel was born in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany on October 11,1967 to Susanne, the family migrated to the United States when Peter was aged one and lived in Cleveland, where Klaus worked as a chemical engineer. Klaus then worked for mining companies, which caused an itinerant upbringing for Thiel and his younger brother. Before settling in Foster City, California in 1977, the Thiels had lived in South Africa and South-West Africa, and Peter had been forced to change elementary schools seven times

47.
John Lithgow
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John Arthur Lithgow is an American actor, musician, singer, comedian and author. Lithgow has received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and has been inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame and his performances in The World According to Garp and Terms of Endearment each earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor. On the stage, he has appeared in many Broadway productions including the adaptation of Sweet Smell of Success. In 2007, he made his Royal Shakespeare Company debut as Malvolio in Neil Bartletts production of Twelfth Night. He has also recorded music, such as the 1999 album of music, Singin in the Bathtub. His work for children has earned him Grammy Award nominations and two Parents Choice Silver Honor Awards, Lithgow was born in Rochester, New York. His mother, Sarah Jane, was a retired actress and his father, Arthur Washington Lithgow III, was a theatrical producer and director who ran the McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. His father was born in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, to an American family of Scottish and English descent, Lithgow is descended from Mayflower passenger and colonial governor William Bradford. Lithgow attended Harvard College, and graduated with an A. B. magna cum laude in 1967, in history and he lived in Adams House as an undergraduate. Lithgow later served on Harvards Board of Overseers, Lithgow credits a performance at Harvard of Gilbert and Sullivans Utopia Limited with helping him decide to become an actor. After graduation, Lithgow won a Fulbright Scholarship to study at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, also, after graduation, he served as the Director of the Arts and Literature Department at WBAI, the Pacifica radio station in New York City. In 1973, Lithgow debuted on Broadway in David Storeys The Changing Room, the following year he starred opposite Lynn Redgrave in My Fat Friend, and in 1976 he starred opposite Meryl Streep in Arthur Millers A Memory of Two Mondays. He was nominated for the Best Actor Tony Awards for Requiem for a Heavyweight, in 2002, Lithgow won a Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical for his portrayal of J. J. Hunsecker in the Broadway adaptation of the 1957 film Sweet Smell of Success, in 2005, Lithgow was elected into the American Theater Hall of Fame for his work on Broadway. He was also nominated for a Best Leading Actor in a Musical Tony for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, in 2004 and 2007, Lithgow debuted Carnival of the Animals elephant character — nurse Mabel Buntz — with the New York City Ballet and Houston Ballet, respectively. In 2007, Lithgow played Malvolio in the Royal Shakespeare Companys production of Twelfth Night, at The Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, in 2008 through 2009, Lithgow played Joe Keller in a Broadway revival of Arthur Millers All My Sons. Lithgow starred alongside Jennifer Ehle in Douglas Carter Beanes comedy Mr & Mrs Fitch presented Off-Broadway by Second Stage Theatre from February 22,2010 to April 4,2010. Lithgow returned to Broadway as Joseph Alsop in the Manhattan Theatre Club production of David Auburns new play The Columnist, the National Theatre tempted Lithgow to appear on the London stage in the winter of 2012/13 as Police Magistrate Aeneas Posket in a revival of Arthur Wing Pineros The Magistrate

John Lithgow
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John Lithgow in Central Park in 2007
John Lithgow
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John Lithgow on the red carpet at the 40th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards on August 28, 1988.

48.
Morgan Freeman
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Morgan Freeman is an American actor, producer and narrator. He has also won a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award and he rose to fame as part of the cast of the 1970s childrens program The Electric Company. Morgan Freeman is ranked as the 4th highest box office star with over $4.316 billion total box office gross, Morgan Freeman was born on June 1,1937 in Memphis, Tennessee. He is the son of Mayme Edna, a teacher, and Morgan Porterfield Freeman, according to a DNA analysis, some of his ancestors were from Niger. Freeman was sent as an infant to his grandmother in Charleston. He moved frequently during his childhood, living in Greenwood, Mississippi, Gary, Indiana, when Freeman was 16 years old, he almost died of pneumonia. Freeman made his debut at age nine, playing the lead role in a school play. He then attended Broad Street High School, a building serves today as Threadgill Elementary School, in Greenwood. At age 12, he won a drama competition, and while still at Broad Street High School, he performed in a radio show based in Nashville. Freemans service portrait appears in his characters funeral scene in The Bucket List. During this period, Freeman also lived in New York City, working as a dancer at the 1964 Worlds Fair, and in San Francisco, where he was a member of the Opera Ring musical theater group. He acted in a touring version of The Royal Hunt of the Sun. He continued to be involved in work and received the Obie Award in 1980 for the title role in Coriolanus. In 1984, he received his second Obie Award for his role as the preacher in The Gospel at Colonus, Freeman also won a Drama Desk Award and a Clarence Derwent Award for his role as a wino in The Mighty Gents. He received his third Obie Award for his role as a chauffeur for a Jewish widow in Driving Miss Daisy, although his first credited film appearance was in 1971s Who Says I Cant Ride a Rainbow. Freeman first became known in the American media through roles on the soap opera Another World, during his tenure with The Electric Company, t was a very unhappy period in his life, according to Joan Ganz Cooney. Freeman himself admitted in an interview that he never thinks about his tenure with the show at all, since then, Freeman has considered his Street Smart character Fast Black, rather than any of the characters he played in The Electric Company, to be his breakthrough role. Beginning in the mid-1980s, Freeman began playing prominent supporting roles in feature films, earning him a reputation for depicting wise

49.
Ellen Barkin
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Ellen Rona Barkin is an American actress and film producer. In 1989, Barkin received positive reviews for her roles in films Johnny Handsome, in 1991, for her leading role in comedy film Switch, Barkin received Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical. Her following films credits include Man Trouble, This Boys Life, Bad Company, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Drop Dead Gorgeous, and Oceans Thirteen. In 1997, Barkin won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie for her performance in the television film Before Women Had Wings. In 2011, she received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her Broadway debut performance in The Normal Heart, in 2016, Barkin began playing the leading role as Janine Smurf Cody in the TNT drama series Animal Kingdom. Barkin was born in The Bronx, New York, the daughter of Evelyn, an administrator who worked at Jamaica Hospital, and Sol Barkin. Barkin was raised in a lower-middle-class Jewish family, a descendant of immigrants from Siberia, Barkin received her high school diploma at Manhattans High School of Performing Arts. She then attended Hunter College and double majored in history and drama, at one point, Barkin wanted to teach ancient history. She continued her education at New York Citys Actors Studio. According to Time, she studied acting for ten years before landing her first audition and her break-out role was in the comedy-drama film Diner, written and directed by Barry Levinson, for which she received favorable reviews. Barkin was cast in the drama film Tender Mercies after impressing its director Bruce Beresford during an audition in New York City, despite her inexperience and she also appeared in the 1983 rock & roll drama film Eddie and the Cruisers. Barkin later appeared in successful films, including the thrillers The Big Easy, opposite Dennis Quaid and Sea of Love. Barkin also appeared in plays, including a role as one of the roommates in Extremities. Barkin has also work in made-for-television films like Before Women Had Wings, for which she won an Emmy as Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. She voiced the start of each Theme Time Radio Hour with host Bob Dylan on XMs Deep Tracks, in 2005, Barkin set up a film production company with her brother, George, along with her husband at the time and billionaire investor, Ronald Perelman. Barkin appeared in her Broadway debut as Dr. Brookner in The Normal Heart, Barkin has received acclaim for her performance in Another Happy Day. IndieWire cited her turn as one of the best female performances of the year, in 2015, she starred as Dani Kirschenbloom, in the Showtime comedy-drama series Happyish. In 2016, Barkin began starring as Janine Smurf Cody, the familys matriarch

Ellen Barkin
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Barkin at the Ocean's Thirteen premiere, 2007
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Ellen Barkin and Kate Bosworth at the Deauville American film festival in 2011